Smaller Mopar cars are not terribly popular here, perhaps because for the longest time, you could get stuck behind a smoking one of these doing five under the speed limit. Of course, things are different now, and these cars are mostly survivors that are at least in decent mechanical shape, and driven by young hipsters instead of old grandmas. Both were attracted by some of the key characteristics of these (and the related Valiants), including the distinctive styling and the cockroach-like slant six. The latter is great in terms of its ability to survive adverse conditions, but cockroaches aren’t exactly universally popular. Check out this 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, for sale for $3500 in Mission Hills, CA.
It’s definitely showing its age, but not in a fatal way – a budget-oriented car that’s survived 49 years of use. It comes with California black license plates, the front one of which has a frame showing the car was (perhaps originally) sold by the Guy Moothart dealership in Compton, CA. The front is definitely one of the car’s better angles, with quad “headlights” up front.
No indication is given as to the displacement of the six, so you could either end up with 101hp or 145hp to move your 3100-lb. car, although the 225 became the base engine for 1965 US cars. Those who want power can do the obvious upgrade to a 273 V8, though you’d be well-served by looking into performance upgrades to the six first. If the Barracuda had been more successful than the Mustang, would that class of car have been called “fish cars” instead of “pony cars”?
The car is said to be in good condition overall, and is said to run, but is not running at this time. So you can… wait, what? If you’re about to spend over three grand to buy an older car, you’ll probably want to ask the seller exactly what this means. Is the battery dead, does it need a carb rebuild, or does it not have enough compression to start regularly? At least stopping won’t be too hard, since the car has front disc brakes.
Interestingly for an affordable coupe, the rear window was the largest on a production car when it debuted. There are some battle scars back here too, but picture this car with widened steel wheels and dog dish hubcaps, and a hopped up six cylinder breathing through a HyperPak replica package, which is said to give 195hp (more than the 273 V8) for you to play with through the manual 3-on-the-tree.
Rusty But Trusty 
July 26, 2014 at 10:02 am |
My neighbor when I was growing up had a baby blue 66 Barracuda that he eventually sold to one of my high school chums (who promptly ran it into the ground) I wanted for myself but I don’t recall how I missed out on it.. I like these cars; they’ve got some cool details in them. This one seems pretty rough for the ask.