Plymouth Barracuda
The Barracuda beat the Mustang out of the gate in 1964 by a couple of weeks making it the first “Pony” car. The body style of this muscle car to be was not in the same league as the Mustang or even the Camaro at the time but that would change in the future. The fast back design used by Plymouth, the slant six and micro V8 along with mileage rear gears just did not say anything about muscle. They pumped up the 273 C.I. in ’66 but no real power until 1967 with a 383 engine. However the Cuda still didn’t handle well and still didn’t have The Look. Again in 1968 only minor body and power changes came into play and the uninspired look still help its ground. 1969 at least saw an interest in the power supply with boosted 340 and 383 and the high powered 440 6-pack but the body style sill remained blah.
In 1970 somebody woke up the designers at Mopar and the styling change they came up with did the trick, at least for me. The engine options were the potent 340 c.i. engine along with the 383.ci. the 440 c.i. standard and 6-pack and the HEMI. Several options for transmissions and rear end gears along with a much better handling and braking package and the new body style made these entries true muscle cars. Muscle cars that could handle anything the others could try and throw at them either on the street or on the track.
The unique option for the Barracuda was the AAR CUDA. A very special 6-pack 340 engine that came with factory built in items that would allow the owner to modify the engine to beef it up. You could add bigger valves, stronger Hemi rockers and 4 bolt mains as a beginning. Stronger suspensions, better brakes and a stronger Dana rear end along with a real cool side stripping system made this car a real contender. I had a friend whose name was “Cosmo” that purchased a nice deep blue AAR. This baby had a 4 speed trans with the pistol grip and those neat side exhaust pipes. This was a great car and he promptly drove it into a tree about 5 weeks after he took delivery. He was not hurt but the beautiful AAR Cuda was gone. Very Very sad indeed.
Sadly as with all muscle cars gas economy, emissions and other cots started to dampen the fantastic fish. 1972 saw the beginning of the end for these marvelous muscle cars. The sad end was in 1974 when they were discontinued. Now that Plymouth itself has been done away with we can only hope the new Chargers and Challenger will at least bring back some of the old feelings.
Chevrolet Chevelle
This car was odd in its styling changes through the years. Although a nice looking car upon introduction in 1964 it became a stunning looking muscle car in 1966. Dropping that boxy look they had even on the Impalas. More stylized with smooth contours made the Chevelle more appealing. This change along with some engine improvements like the many varieties of the 396 c.i. and the 427 c.i. made this economical muscle car available for many looking to feel the oomph. A stiffer suspension and better tires helped in the handling. It is hard for me to decide but I think I like the way the 67 Chevelle looked the best.
In my opinion the style was the best thing about the Chevelle. I also like the change in looks of the car in 1968 with the fast back design. This fast back design stayed with the Chevelle until 1972. Chevrolet came back with bigger and better engines in varying packages. Adding this muscle to the car helped keep the Chevelle a vary popular car in the early 1970s. It is too bad that the muscle was not up to Mopar, opps I mean par.
The engines, suspensions and other things that needed to be adjusted and make the cars viable on the strip needed to be added in the aftermarket. Several of my friends had Chevelles and other Chevys with the big block engines and they put ALOT of money into the engines to get under 14 seconds and I let them live their fantasies.
I think GM went head long into the emissions control problems and they put a vacuum hose on everything in the early 70s. This killed the Chevelle after 1973 with less and less power, a bad style change and that ugly lower lip front bumper to comply with the 5 mph crash requirement. Not to pick only on GM for the ugly bumpers all makes were ugly in their own way. So goodbye to the muscle Chevelle, a great looking and fairly decent performing hunk of muscle.
