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When the redesigned 1970 Plymouth
Barracuda came to the muscle car market, there would be no excuses for
not putting a big engine under its wide hood. Design engineers had
widened the car by more than 5 inches and increased both the front and
rear tracks by 3 inches. As a result any Chrysler engine would fit in
the engine bay, right up to the street version of the “King Kong” racing
power plant, the 426 cid Hemi.
The Hemi was an $871.45 option for the
muscular Cuda hardtop which had a base price at $3 164.
Street Hemi’s got new hydraulic lifters
for 1970, but a new cam profile gave the Mopar Engineer no reason to
alter the 425 advertised HP rating. The Hemi’s two Carter A=B
four-barrel carburetors breathed through the Air Grabber “SHAKER” hood
scoop.
In order to get the horses to the
pavement, Hemi-powered Cuda’s relied on heavy-duty drive-line parts.
There was a choice of the New Process A-833 four speed manual gearbox or
the 727 Torqueflite automatic.
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A Dana 9.34 differential was kept in
place by a leaf spring rear suspension with six leafs on the right and
five leafs plus two half-leafs on the left. Fifteen inch
diameter, 7 inch-wide wheels held F60x15 tires.
In short, power was the Hemi Cuda’s
long suit. Not long was the list of buyers. Insurance companies
did not look kindly on Hemi Cuda’s and did not care if they could do
0-60mph in the mid 5 seconds and run down the quarter mile in 14 seconds
on less at over 100mph. By the time the 1970 run came to an
end, on 652 hardtops had left the factory with Hemi power and 284 of
them had four-speed transmissions.
This particular ’70 Hemi Cuda has a
N-96 Shaker hood, radio delete, stripe delete, high impact in violet
paint with original broadcast sheet and original fender tag. This real
’70 Hemi Cuda comes with a 727 automatic transmission and is believed to
be one of the lowest mileage documented ’70 Hemi Cuda’s known to exist,
with 1,005 miles when purchased in the spring of ’08. It is an all
original numbers matching car.
It resides in the private collection of
Daryl Carter, in Penticton, BC, Canada. |
