Despite the time change, it's getting late earlier and earlier up here on the North Coast and folks are pushing their "projects" out of the garage before "The Darkness" really sets in. Poster of the ad for this 1973 Plymouth Barracuda says his son bought it as a project but was injured in a motorcycle accident and needs to sell it to pay for medical expenses. Asking price is $8,500. Amazingly, I believe it's been sold.
I'm not surprised by the asking price or the fact it's gone. Especially for one of these desperately needing restoration that, allegedly, actually runs. 1970-1974 Plymouth Barracudas and their similar looking corporate cousin Dodge Challengers are among-st the most sought after "classic cars" on the market today and even basket cases like this command good money. Reasons for that are peculiar too since these didn't sell well when new.
Chrysler's timing in rolling these out for 1970 could not have been worse. By 1970 the pony and muscle car era was waning and GM's slinky new Camaro and Firebird for 1970, made these look frumpy and old. What's more they were hammered by the automotive press for being too heavy, too fat, too unyeildy and too thirsty. Even if they were heralded as world beaters, given the manufacturing power of Chrysler compared to GM and even Ford, they wouldn't have sold anywhere near the number of Camaros and Firebirds GM sold. So, why the fervor now?
Why the fervor for any old car? Supply and demand. The classic car market is not exactly mainstream and what's out there are in high demand to a small, niche group of buyers. And these cars, in my humblest of opines, are simply awesome and their design transcends the fact they're, sorry, MOPAR fans, junky Chryslers. And in a classic car world where the world is flat and everything is equal, which things most certainly weren't in the early Seventies, nothing from GM or Ford even comes close. These days we could care less now they were sloppily built and handled like a truck with square wheels when new.
Although 1964-1969 Plymouth Barracudas were nick named "'Cuda" in some marketing materials, "'Cuda" didn't become its own distinct model until 1970. And a "Barracuda 'Cuda" was billed as performance car. For '73 like our Facebook find here, the "Cuda" package got buyers standard power-assisted front disc brakes, a 318-cubic inch, 2-barrel V-8 with a 340-cubic inch 4-barrel optional, bucket seats to go around a floor mounted three-speed manual with an optional 4-speed or torque flight automatic optional, "heavy-duty" anti-sway bars fore and aft and your atypical if somewhat cliched tape job and decals.
The "super-displacement" 440 V-8 and the 426 HEMI, exclusive to 'Cudas in 1970 and 1971, were gone by '72. Just as well as apparently the 340 cars were the way to go. Less power, yes. But less weight and it's not like the 340 cars were slowpokes anyway. Even with primitive smog plumbing tamping down the go-fast.
Amazing, I can't find this again so that tells me it's been sold. That bodes well for the son injured in a motorcycle accident. Perhaps someone saw the value in this and can do the work themselves. Then ithis might be a bargain. I don't know what I'd be comfortable paying for it seeing it's an Ohio car and it's all but rusted out. That's what scares me the most. The metal work.
I wish the seller and his son nothing but the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment