"What if?" Are there two words when combined more thought provoking? What if...Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy hadn't been assassinated? What if the oceans dried up? What if plastic was banned? What if The South won the Civil War? What if you never had to sleep? What if...in 1964 Chrysler came with this Plymouth Barracuda they debuted in 1967 instead of the dressed-up Valiant they did come with? Now that, car friends, is a "what if" scenario worth talking about.
"Pony Car" pundits claim the problem with the 1964-1966 Barracuda was that it was a lightly disguised Plymouth Valiant; save for the massive and heavy rear window that did not open, did anyone hear that tree fall in the forest? No. They didn't. Dressing up an economy car as more than it is not necessarily a bad thing although pony car cognoscenti want nothing to do with acknowledging their beloved steeds are in fact gussied up economy-cars.
Ford disguised that their original Mustang was little more than their economy-car Falcon with a fancy body quite well. Plymouth? Not so much. Ford sold 418,000 Mustang's by the end of the 1965 model and more than 1.4-million by the end of 1966. The Mustang's ribald success is the reason Ford is given credit for creating the "pony car" market segment or niche. Meanwhile, Plymouth sold fewer than 100,000 Barracuda's en masse during the same time.
Let's add insult to injury and remind you that Plymouth introduced the Barracuda just over two-weeks before Ford pulled the sheet off the Mustang at, of all places, New York City's World's Fair. Ford's multi-media mix of advertising and promotional stunting, that was by some accords three year in the making, stoking the coals of a buying public that was at a near fevered pitch when the car was actually finally released. Ford also claimed to have done exhaustive market research to determine that drivers coming of age in the 1960's wanted a smaller, sporty car. The success of the Mustang was certainly no accident.
After it was apparent the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda was a sales dud, Chrysler's stylists led by Dick McAdams got to work immediately on a new model that although continued to use Chrysler's compact A-body chassis, shared no body panel stampings with the Valiant. Subjectively, through my goggles, the 1967 Barracuda was every bit as pretty if not somewhat more refined than Ford's seminal '64 1/2 Mustang. Especially in "notch-back" or coupe guise like our lovely subject here that the '64-'66 Barracuda's was not available in. In fastback mode I may give the nod to the Mustang, the convertibles are all a wash.
While the "coke bottle" styling may seem derivative today given that General Motors designs of the vintage lean heavily on that theme, the '67 Barracuda was a fresh and unique design that critics at the time declared was decidedly "Italian"; ala Ferrari. Imagine that. On a Plymouth of all things. If Plymouth could have done this for '67, why not '64? Well, story goes that Plymouth didn't have the budget or crisis-plagued Chrysler chose not to give the project one but I digress.
This is where the "what-if" discussion about these cars gets interesting since the updated Barracuda sold even worse than the '64-'66 Barracuda's. How was that even remotely possible?
For starters, it didn't help that it rode and handled like a truck with square wooden wheels, especially equipped with a 383 cubic-inch V-8 that was so big Chrysler engineers couldn't fit a power steering pump on it despite making the chassis wider specifically so the big engine could fit in it. Air conditioning was a no go as well on Barracuda's with the 383. Meanwhile Ford's also new for '67 Mustang, well, more like updated, came with an engine room big enough to house not only their monstrous 390 cubic-inch V-8 but they squeezed in power steering and air conditioning. Whoops.
Another problem was competition. For 1967, General Motors came with two "ponies", the Chevrolet Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird that sold, combined, more than 300,000. Ford also introduced a Mercury version of the Mustang. Suddenly a market segment, and lest we forget a niche market, that didn't exist just four model year prior, was clogged with five different makes and models for buyers to choose from. As we like to say, choice is great for the consumer but it's bad for business.
"What if". With regards to the Plymouth Barracuda, who knows. Of course, it's impossible to say if the 1967 Plymouth Barracuda was launched in 1964, with a '64 Mustang sized ad budget, if the fate of the Barracuda (and Plymouth, ultimately) would have been different. All these years later, the pony car war is still all about Mustang vs. Camaro and to some degree, especially over the last twelve, thirteen years or so, the Dodge Challenger although most consider the modern Challenger more of a grand touring car than a pony. Sadly, you have to remind people that there was once a Plymouth that was, in reality, the first muscle car. "What if..."
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