In Torque We Trust – 1967 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S

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.

Bob Gough spent part of his childhood in France, surrounded by European sports cars, and came home believing American muscle simply couldn’t compete with what he’d seen overseas. Then he found the one American car built specifically to prove him wrong. The Plymouth Barracuda Formula S wasn’t just another ‘Cuda with a bigger engine — it was Plymouth’s own attempt to build something that could hang with a Porsche through a set of twisty European-style corners, not just win in a straight line. More than two decades of ownership later, Gough has upgraded the car well past its original spec, and by his own account, it now does something that would have seemed impossible to his younger self: leave Porsches behind.

A Barracuda Built to Handle, Not Just Accelerate

When Plymouth introduced the Formula S package on the Barracuda in 1965, the goal wasn’t simply more horsepower — it was genuine handling capability, an area where most American muscle cars of the era were openly outmatched by European sports cars regardless of straight-line performance. The Formula S added heavy-duty suspension components, a front sway bar, wider wheels, and more aggressive tires specifically to give the Barracuda the kind of composure through corners that its Detroit rivals largely ignored in favor of chasing quarter-mile numbers.

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From 273 to 340: A Deliberate Upgrade

This particular car originally left the factory with Plymouth’s 273-cubic-inch V8, a competent but modest small block, before Gough later swapped in a 340-cubic-inch V8 — a genuinely stronger engine that Plymouth itself would introduce as a Barracuda option only a couple of years later. That upgrade path mirrors a broader trend among long-term Barracuda owners: rather than chasing a numbers-matching restoration, Gough chose to build the car into the version of itself he actually wanted to drive, using period-correct Mopar hardware to do it.

A Five-Speed Where a Three-Speed Used to Be

Alongside the engine swap, Gough replaced the original transmission with a modern Tremec five-speed manual, a change that transforms how a car like this behaves at highway speed by adding an overdrive gear the factory setup never offered. It’s a common and sensible upgrade among owners who actually drive their classic Mopars regularly rather than trailering them to shows, since it lets the car cruise at modern highway speeds without the original gearing forcing the engine to spin far higher than necessary.

Nitrogen Shocks: The One Suspension Change That Mattered Most

Despite modifying the engine, transmission, and wheels, Gough made only one change to the car’s suspension itself — swapping the original shocks for nitrogen-charged units — and by his own account, that single change dramatically improved the car’s handling. It’s a detail that speaks to how well-sorted the Formula S package already was from the factory: rather than needing a complete suspension overhaul, one well-chosen shock upgrade was enough to bring the car’s handling in line with what Gough wanted from it.

Custom Wheels for a Very Specific Reason

Gough also moved away from the Barracuda’s original 14-inch wheels to custom 15-inch steelies, a change that allowed for wider, higher-performance tires than the factory setup could accommodate. For a car built around cornering capability rather than straight-line drag racing, that extra tire footprint translates directly into more mechanical grip through the twisties — exactly the kind of upgrade that matters most to an owner whose entire relationship with the car is built around out-cornering, not just out-accelerating, European rivals.

A Car That Will Leave Porsches Behind — With a Catch

According to Gough, the Barracuda’s ample torque allows it to leave Porsches behind once the road straightens out after a set of corners — a claim that fits the car’s small-block torque advantage over many contemporary European sports cars of the same era. But he’s equally direct about the car’s limits: the Formula S is prone to rear-wheel lockup entering corners, meaning early, deliberate braking is essential rather than optional. It’s a car that rewards a specific, disciplined driving style rather than one that simply does everything for the driver automatically.

Docile Until It Isn’t

Despite its upgraded hardware and genuine capability, Gough describes the car as surprisingly docile to drive day to day — right up until the moment he asks more of it, at which point its purpose-built handling upgrades reveal themselves. His own closing thought captures the contradiction well: it’s an easy car to drive gently, “but who drives a car like that?” It’s a fitting question for a car built specifically to prove that American muscle could hang with Europe’s best — a case Gough, and this Barracuda, have apparently been making successfully for over twenty-three years.

A Petrolicious Story, and a Different Kind of 1967 Pony Car

Petrolicious built its entire brand around this exact kind of story — not just cataloguing horsepower and production numbers, but sitting down with an owner and letting their relationship with the car carry the film. That approach works especially well for a car like this Barracuda, where the mechanical specs alone don’t explain why Gough has kept and continually refined it for more than two decades. Within Plymouth’s own 1967 lineup, the Formula S also stood apart from the standard Barracuda notchback and fastback by being explicitly marketed on handling rather than raw quarter-mile numbers, a positioning that put it in a different conversation than the contemporary Mustang GT or Camaro SS, both of which leaned harder into straight-line performance messaging even when their chassis were arguably just as capable through a corner.

It’s also worth noting how unusual it is for a European-focused outlet to spend an entire feature on an American car by choice rather than obligation. Petrolicious built its early reputation largely on Porsches, Alfa Romeos, and other continental marques, which makes a feature explicitly framed around proving American muscle can hang with those very cars a small but pointed statement in itself — and a fitting one, given that proving exactly that point has been the guiding idea behind this Barracuda’s entire twenty-three-year build.

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