Bob Gough grew up in France idolizing European sports cars and came home doubting American muscle could keep up. Then he found the 1967 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S, Plymouth’s own answer built specifically to handle like a European car rather than just run a fast quarter mile. Over twenty-three years of ownership, Gough has swapped in a 340 V8, a Tremec five-speed, custom 15-inch wheels, and nitrogen shocks — and says the result can leave Porsches behind once the road straightens out. Watch to hear why he still calls it deceptively docile to drive.
Posts Tagged: Plymouth
The 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible is the rarest and most valuable muscle car most enthusiasts will never see in person — only 14 were ever built. Back in period, buyers largely ignored it, put off by insurance costs and a price tag that made little sense for a mid-size car. Decades later, that same scarcity has pushed individual examples toward eight-figure sales. Read on to find out how a commercial failure became the most expensive muscle car in the world.
Plymouth expected to sell about 20,000 Road Runners in 1968 and moved more than twice that, building a muscle car around the radical idea of removing everything a buyer did not need. Fewer than one in forty buyers paid the $714 premium for the 426 Hemi, which cost roughly a quarter of the car’s base price. This restored blue example carries that exact rare combination. Read on for why the cheapest Mopar got the most expensive engine.
The triple-carb 440 under this Cuda’s hood was not a casual option. Plymouth built barely 1,700-some of them in 1970, split between four-speed and automatic cars. Here is what made the 440 Six Pack such a rare and serious performance package, and why guessing its value takes more than eyeballing the sheet metal.
A dyno breakdown nearly stops a freshly rebuilt 1967 Plymouth GTX from getting its first real test at Nicks Garage. The 440 big block had already survived a full rebuild, now it just needed the shops own equipment to cooperate. Viewers who tune in for the fix stay for the moment the engine finally comes alive on the dyno. It is a reminder that even a top-tier shop runs into problems most builders never show on camera.
Dodge built 503 winged Chargers. Plymouth was forced to build nearly four times as many Superbirds. Both cars came out of the same NASCAR rulebook and the same wind tunnel program, yet they ended up with different noses, different wings, different interiors, and very different reputations among collectors today. One of them was measurably faster on the high banks. Read on to find out which, and why the gap was smaller than either camp admits.
This showroom shot of a polished orange muscle car taps into one of Detroit biggest marketing gambles: the early-1970s high-impact color wars. Hemi Orange, Hugger Orange, and Grabber Orange all trace back to the same era of factory one-upmanship. Here is the story behind the shade that still turns heads decades later.
Beneath the plain sheetmetal of this mid-size Plymouth sat one of the rarest engines Chrysler ever sold to the public: the 425-horsepower Street Hemi, built for NHRA stock classes and barely civilized for the street. Only 677 Belvederes were built with it in 1966, a year before the GTX name even existed to advertise what was under the hood. Buyers got forged internals, dual four-barrel carburetion, and a torque curve that demanded a reinforced rear axle. It’s the missing chapter most muscle car fans skip straight past.
Only ten 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II convertibles left the factory with a 426 Hemi, six of those with automatics, and just one in the color code 661 Metallic Mauve — the car in this episode, restored with its original numbers-matching driveline intact. Commenters can’t agree if the color is mauve or purple, but they agree on one thing: this Hemi was built to be feared, not casually enjoyed. What actually makes a car the rarest piece in a collection already built around rare Mopars?
Pontiac has the strongest claim to inventing the category. Ford has the sales records by an enormous margin. Dodge and Plymouth have what collectors are willing to pay today, which is a completely different ranking. Every camp is quoting a real number and reaching a different answer, because they are all using different measuring sticks. Read on for what each one actually proves, and which one settles it.
A 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II hardtop in stock trim, running a 440 with performance work done, looks like it rolled off a period drag strip. There is a wrinkle in that description worth knowing about, because the 440 did not exist in 1965 and the 426 Hemi you could get that year was not sold for street use. Here is what Plymouth actually offered, what the Belvedere II was, and why honest big-block survivors keep climbing.
This photo captures one of NASCAR’s rarest creations: a genuine wing car from the sport’s brief but wild ‘aero wars.’ Built by Dodge and Plymouth to chase top speed with towering rear wings and extended nosecones, cars like this one dominated the 1970 season before a single rule change legislated them out of competition almost overnight. Read on to find out why that rule mattered so much, and why surviving examples are worth seven figures today.
Fiat Chrysler’s decision to renew its trademark on the Cuda name reignited a rumor that has refused to die for the better part of a decade: that Dodge might resurrect one of Mopar’s most storied nameplates. The renewal alone proves nothing, since automakers routinely protect names they have no plans to use. Read on to find out what the paperwork actually reveals, and why the speculation keeps coming back.
