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Chrysler built the Barracuda and Challenger from the same E-body platform in 1970, sharing every engine up to the 426 Hemi between them, yet a documented Hemi ‘Cuda convertible now outsells a comparable Challenger by a wide margin at major auctions. Both nameplates died together in 1974, but only one came back. Read on to find out which E-body actually earned the bragging rights.
Bob Gough grew up idolizing European sports cars after a few childhood years in France — until a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S changed his mind. Over more than twenty-three years of ownership, he’s swapped in a 340-cubic-inch V8, a Tremec five-speed, and nitrogen shocks, building a car with enough torque to ‘leave Porsches behind’ on the straights. Watch to see why one habit still catches him out in the corners.
A numbers-matching 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda with the rare 440 Six Barrel engine and a four-speed manual is about to cross the auction block in Las Vegas — one of only 108 Plymouth ever built with that exact combination. Its quad headlights and shark-gill fender vents mark it as a one-year-only design, and its drivetrain still carries the original numbers. Here’s what makes this ‘Cuda worth watching when the gavel drops.
Plymouth only built the ‘Cuda with quad headlights, fender gills, and six round taillights for a single model year — and then never touched that look again. Compare it to the cleaner 1970 face it replaced and you’ll understand why E-body fans still argue over which year actually nailed the look. One thing both years agree on: neither one apologizes for being a muscle car.
Plymouth built the 1971 ‘Cuda with a look it never repeated: quad headlights, fender gills, and billboard graphics found on no other year. UFC president Dana White picked exactly this rare-bodied ‘Cuda for a full restomod, swapping in a 425-horsepower 440 and a Curry 9-inch rear end. The result became one of MuscleCar’s most-watched builds ever.
Doug Bolton wanted the hottest engine Chevrolet built for 1970, and Roy Price Chevrolet was just blocks from his house in Bountiful, Utah. Decades later, his unrestored 4,300-mile LS6 Chevelle is still on the road rather than tucked away in a trailer. Read on to find out what makes an LS6 the engine every Chevy fan of that era wanted.
Filmed in 2007 for a television series most viewers have never heard of, this segment captures a 1971 Plymouth Cuda’s 440 Six Pack coming to life under Legendary Motorcar’s care. The triple-carburetor setup gives the big-block a distinctive burble that Mopar collectors can pick out by ear alone. See why this specific engine badge still commands serious money and even more serious attention.
From the mid-1950s through the 1970s, street racers ruled the boulevard, the drive-in, and the local dragstrip, marking their best times in shoe polish on the windshield for the whole school to see. Crashes, license suspensions, and new laws eventually ended the era, but a surprising number of cars survived, quietly passed down to children and grandchildren who still race them today. Read on to find out where this culture actually played out.
The 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda shares its basic body with a car Plymouth once sold as sensible transportation, and yet it routinely outruns period Ferraris at auction. The reason is not styling, and it is not nostalgia. It comes down to a single option box that almost nobody checked, a production number small enough to memorize, and an engine Chrysler built for the racetrack first. Here is the whole story.
From the outside it reads as a pearl orange Plymouth Cuda with a Hemi under the shaker, which is already a serious thing to own. Look through the driver’s window and the story changes completely, because the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Schwartz Performance built this E-body for an owner in India, and moving the wheel turned out to be the smallest part of the job. Read on to find out what had to move with it.
Every May, a park in Van Nuys, California fills with more than 700 Mopars, 300 swap-meet vendors, and close to 10,000 spectators, and the cars everyone photographs are the E-bodies. Barracudas, Cudas, and Challengers built across a five-year window that produced some of the rarest muscle cars ever sold. Read on to find out why a platform that lasted barely half a decade still anchors the largest Mopar gathering west of the Mississippi.
FCA filed a trademark on the Cuda name, and the easy reaction was to dismiss it as routine housekeeping. What made this one worth a second look was the filing classification covering badges and decals, plus the fact that the company had already trademarked Barracuda a couple of years earlier. Two filings in a row is a pattern, not paperwork. Here is what the name is worth, and what would have to happen for it to return.
Tom Scarpello ran Ford’s Special Vehicle Team from 1998 to 2004, then founded a company to answer the question he kept hearing at car shows: why not just build the original Mustang again? Revology does not restore old cars. It builds new ones on officially licensed reproduction bodies, powered by Ford’s modern Coyote V8, with modern steering, brakes, wiring, and air conditioning. Here is what that actually gets you, and what it costs.
A Michigan collector’s wanted ad for any Plymouth Barracuda, in any condition, reflects just how scarce genuine survivors have become since Plymouth’s 1970 redesign turned the car into one of the era’s most sought-after E-body muscle cars. That redesign also produced the one-year-only AAR ‘Cuda, a homologation special built for Trans-Am racing that still drives collector demand today. Read on to find out what makes the 1970 model year so different from everything that came before it.
Jeff Schwartz of Schwartz Performance Inc. spent two years turning a 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda into something far more than a restoration: a Pearl Orange Metallic restomod packing 805 horsepower from a 426 Hemi, built on a modern chassis and engineered to handle like a road-ready race car. The shape is instantly familiar. Almost everything underneath it isn’t.