Plymouth Road Runner was a muscle car manufactured by Chrysler between 1968 and 1980. Many were of the opinion that the early muscles cars were shifting away from their roots of being relatively cheap and fast cars. Plymouth did have an existing performance car at that time in the form of the GTX. However, designers wanted to recreate the concept of muscle cars.

Plymouth’s goal was to create a car that would run an incredible 14 second times within the quarter mile and sell the car for anything less than US$3000. Surprisingly both these goals were accomplished and this low priced muscle car was ready to hit the roads. This car was very well received by the customers and very soon replaced the high scale and low volume GTX.

Chrysler paid a whopping $50,000 to Warner Brothers in order to bag the rights to use name Road Runner, which was a name of a cartoon character from the Warner Brothers production house. This car was more of re-entry to the muscle cars space and Plymouth wanted it to create a niche for this model and hence spared no effort or resource to build this car.

Plymouth used the Chrysler B platform to create this car and all important aspects from performance to maintenance were upgraded. The looks were also given much importance and shaped up to be a great looking car with wonderful interior. It definitely is one of the greatest muscle car that has been ever built.

The 440-6 and 426 Hemi made the performance of the Barracudas highly proficient. The engine was easy to modify to a degree and in either way; original or modified, one could in effect have a five sit race car. In the year 1971, more alteration took place with a different frame and taillights. This Hemi-powered design is considered to be legendary version and is much sought after by automobile collectors of today.

More redesign took place in the subsequent year, with twin headlight and globular taillights. This redesign remained unchanged for the next three years. However, the tougher emission laws introduced in that period meant that there was a significant dent in the power of this machine.

Added to this was the introduction of new safety policies by the government which demanded larger front as well as rear bumper guard. Regrettably, all these and the oil crisis that had engulfed the economy in that period forced the halting of production of the celebrated Barracuda.

Though famous in the collector’s circuit and much sought after by them because of rarity of certain models, it can be safely said that the third generation models were a great marketing blunder and could never match rivals like Ford and GM.

The Plymouth Barracuda is an exemplary muscle car which was produced by the Chrysler Corporation between 1964 and 1974. The Barracuda was a reincarnation of the earlier models of the Plymouth Valiant. Chrysler Corporation made the alteration with an intention of making a high selling vehicle. Plymouth though could not match the Ford Mustang during the mid 60s in terms of sales and popularity. The first Barracuda had a 273 cubic inch V8 base engine with 180 hp and could run 0-60 in less than 13 sec.

The Plymouth Barracuda is considered a pony car because it is an economical, sporty and a high performance vehicle. The executives initially considered naming the car as Panda, but eventually the idea of John Samsen was taken up and it was hence named as Barracuda.

The Barracuda had the wheelbase of the Valiant and its hood was designed during its production in the 1960s. The other alteration made to the Valiant was an additional rear window. The wraparound window was contemporarily the largest ever to have been used in a car. It was designed by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass and Chrysler designers.

To fight the intense competition, Plymouth introduced the Formula S package in 1965. The car had a V-8 engine and much broader wheels and tires. There were some changes made to the dashboard as well. Disc brakes and air conditions were also made available in the cars later on in the same year.

The production of the Barracuda was finally stopped as it could not match the Ford Mustang in sales and production. However, it still is the missing link between the long gone muscle cars of the 1960s and 70s.