Man Sells 1970 AAR CUDA for $500

James sold his 1970 AAR ‘Cuda for $500 decades ago, not fully realizing he was letting go of a genuine SCCA Trans-Am homologation special built in just five weeks. Its 340 Six Pack small-block was underrated at 290 horsepower and could run 0-60 in under six seconds. It’s a story every muscle car fan half-recognizes, and a reminder of how many legends slipped away for pocket change.

This story from James about his 1970 AAR Cuda that he had in high school. He sold it for $500 decades ago. Â I am sure we have all sold our muscle cars Â cheap compared top today’s prices, so don’t judge!

His story as written by James.

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“Bought this car after it was damaged in the front and had the 340 six pack. Automatic. Did not find the chin spoilers for it to replace all damaged parts but turned out very good. Had the speedometer past the 140 mark to the M in MPH on the bottom of the speedometer ONCE. The road was not good under the car and it seamed like I was flying instead of driving. Was hard to stay in a two lane road when taking off if you did not have experience with the car and the power it had. Girls would drive it and I would have to tell them to look at the speedometer because at 80 it felt like it was doing 40. Most of them would hit 100 before they even noticed. Love that car but did not know what I had and sold it for $500.00 OOPS.”

A little 70 Cuda info: Â A street version of the AAR ‘Cuda was produced, powered by the 340Â cuÂ in (5.6Â L) “Six Pack” (three two-barrel carburetors) engine. Four 1970 Hemi ‘Cudas were also successfully raced by Chrysler France, from 1970 until 1973.^[18]The works team director HenrÃ Chemin piloted the first car, and then sold it on to friend and privateer J. F. Mas who went on to race it for another two years.

Classic white Dodge Challenger with black racing stripes at a car show. — The Amazing AAR

James sold his 1970 AAR ‘Cuda for five hundred dollars, and decades later he still remembers exactly why that decision haunts him. He bought the car already damaged, missing its factory chin spoilers, running a 340 Six Pack under a matte black hood scoop that meant business the moment you saw it. What followed was the kind of ownership story every muscle car fan half-recognizes: a speedometer pinned past numbers it was never supposed to see, girls behind the wheel who had no idea how fast eighty actually felt, and a sale that made sense at the time and none at all in hindsight. What was actually under that hood explains why this story still stings.

A Homologation Special Built to Race

The AAR ‘Cuda existed for exactly one reason: SCCA Trans-Am homologation rules required Plymouth to build a minimum of 2,500 street versions before Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team could legally campaign the car with Gurney and Swede Savage behind the wheel. Plymouth built precisely 2,724 of them, all crammed into a five-week production window between March and April of 1970, making the AAR ‘Cuda a genuine single-year, single-purpose homologation special rather than a marketing trim level dressed up to look fast.

The Six-Pack That Made It Legendary

Under that NACA-duct hood sat a 340-cubic-inch small-block wearing three two-barrel Holley carburetors, officially rated at 290 horsepower but widely believed to make well over 320 in real terms. Paired with either a close-ratio four-speed or a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic and an 8.75-inch Sure-Grip rear end, the AAR could run 0-60 in 5.8 seconds and clear the quarter mile in 14.4, numbers that held up against cars carrying far bigger engines. Side-mounted exhaust, body-side strobe stripes, and a black ducktail spoiler rounded out a package that looked every bit as serious as its race-bred underpinnings. James may not have known exactly what he had back in high school, but the car certainly did.

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