CarBrandLogos archive · Plymouth · 1964

PlymouthBarracuda

Beat the Mustang to market by two weeks, then spent six years catching up.

Photo: Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Plymouth history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Plymouth Barracuda, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Plymouth got there first. The Barracuda went on sale in April 1964, a fortnight before Ford launched the Mustang, and then watched Ford take the entire market. The reason is not mysterious. The first Barracuda was a Valiant with a fastback roof grafted on, dominated by an enormous wraparound rear window that was the largest piece of glass yet fitted to a production car. It was clever and it was cheap to develop, but it read as a modified compact rather than a new kind of car, and the Mustang did not.

1965 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S · Barracuda1965 at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The second generation of 1967 was a much better effort, with proper coupe, convertible and fastback bodies and room for big-block V8s, but the pony car class Plymouth had technically invented was by then defined entirely by other people's products.

'74 Plymouth Cuda · Bull-Doser · Public domain

In production

Redemption came in 1970. The third-generation E-body car dropped the Valiant connection, adopted proportions that owed something to the Camaro, and was engineered from the start to accept Chrysler's largest engines. The Cuda versions with the 440 or the 426 Hemi are among the most aggressive machines Detroit built before insurance rates and emissions rules closed the era down, and the handful of Hemi Cuda convertibles built in 1970 and 1971 are now among the most valuable American cars in existence.

1966 Plymouth Barracuda photo-3 · AlfvanBeem · CC0

Legacy

Production ended in 1974, having lasted ten years and never once outsold the car it beat to the showroom.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1964–1974

Technical specification

The Barracuda, in detail.

Production: 1964–1974
Class: Pony car
Layout: FR layout
Assembly: United States: Fenton, Missouri (Saint Louis Assembly); United States: Hamtramck, Michigan, (Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly; Dodge Factory) ; United States: Maywood, California, (Los Angeles (Maywood) Assembly; Los Angeles A
Manufacturer: Plymouth (Chrysler)

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