Comments: 1-15, 16-21
This was a 71 Cuda Convertible. Convertible top lines and fittings constantly broke and leaked. I replaced with copper lines.
The car needed restoration when I got it. Front end bushings and ball joints shot by 70K miles, as most of these were by that mileage.
Mechanically, the car was pretty bulletproof.
Doors sagged. Window cranks stiff and noisy.
Windows rattled and leaked.
Frame/Unibody flexed a lot over typical city road bumps and dips.
Everything inside the interior felt loose and cheaply made, like it was going to crack and fall apart.
This was a 71 Cuda 340 Convertible, AT, 3.55 gear, factory air, no rust, mechanically restored, desert car.
I traded a 69 SS 396 Four Speed Chevelle for this car. The Chevelle was superior in every respect to this E-Body junker Cuda, except for rarity and investment value.
Everyone knows the old Mopar drivetrains are pretty strong, powerful, and hold up well. This car ran as good as any 340 did back then.
The body and chassis was junk. Flexy, rattly, and just plain terrible riding, and noisy as hell.
The rear valence panel exhausts direct the spent gas up and toward the middle of the rear, so exhaust fumes and stink somehow get sucked into the car, even with the top up.
Chassis rigidity and ride quality was inferior most any other muscle car of the day that I can think of.
It was, and is, a great looking, cool car. If you are the type that likes attention, distractions, and annoyances everywhere you go, this car will get it for you.
Every time I drove it, it seems it attracted all the freaks, losers, and leftover burnt out LSD hippie freak types from the 60's.
Cars would hit the brakes in front and speed up from behind just to see it, then roll down the windows and shout, "Hey dude, you wanna sell that". What a PITA.
If you want to preserve a rare and important piece of American muscle car history, then this is for you.
However, if you appreciate quality and a finely engineered driving and handling experience, you will be sorely disapointed by a convertible.
I had a 65 Comet Cyclone, 289 four speed, that was way more solid than this heap.
But hey, it looks cool, so buy one now for $75,000 and enjoy the comments as you drive in misery in this leaky, flexy, stinky, noisy rattle trap.
This review sounds like a load. Either the "reviewer" never actually owned this car, or was never the type of person who should have owned a muscle car in the first place.
As he points out, this was a machine preserved from 1971. You can't compare the ride to a new BMW. If he owned it at all, which I doubt, I hope that he sold it to someone who appreciates the car more than he did.
I agree with the last guy. The whole point of getting an old muscle car is to restore it! a 1970 'Cuda is not going to be rolling off the line new, that's the OWNER'S job. Nothing is going to hold up perfectly for 37 years. If you never wanted to deal with restoring a nice classic car you should have gone out and bought a cheap new fart can.
I can't believe you're complaining about exhaust smell and the car not being as rigid as a framed car; it's a convertible and unibody. Take your 69 and put it up against a 440 6 pack Cuda, or better yet how about the 68 426 hemi Barracuda. After all, we are talking about muscle cars here.
This has to be a joke to get Mopar fans going. If it's not then horse power to weight is the name of the game, not how low your decibel meter goes in the car at idle. And further more, at the time E bodies came off the production line, even the builders didn't brag about the quality of craftsmanship, they built unibody cars lighter for HP-lbs with a wide range of engines; the 340 being one of the smallest, so if you're going to compare a 396 Big Block to the 2nd smallest V8 that Plymouth offered at that time, obviously you would lean towards the Chevelle.
Maybe you should have rethought your purchase before stopping somebody from buying their dream car. Not me however, I have a 1973 Barracuda with a B 383 that would eat your old Chevelle for breakfast. It's lighter and I'm carrying plenty of cubes to take care of business on the street, taking down almost every Chevy I've ever raced.
Actually the '71 340 was no slouch. It was a match for the stock 383, and would have given the 396 a good run for its money. The 340 was so much more than just the 2nd smallest V-8 that Mopar made. In reality, of course, there was the 273, then the 318, and then the 340. But at stock with 10.5:1 compression pistons, free flowing exhaust manifolds that were nearly headers, and the big Carter 4-barrel, there is a reason why the 340 was called the poor man's hemi. In the stock power hierarchy, the 340 is probably above the 383 and surely above the 400. Of course all that changed in '72 when the compression ratios dropped. On the other hand, the electronic ignition was a huge improvement over the old point distributors.
The electronic ignition control was a huge improvement. I said that the 340 was the 2nd smallest V8 offered at the time
in the E-body, and if you can find me one (an E-body) with a 273 from the factory with documentation it's probably the most rare car of all time because Plymouth never even made 1 Barracuda BH, BP, or Cuda BS between 1970-74 with the 273ci. They had only six V8 engine displacements available for base or optioned E-bodies, the 318, 340, 360, 383, 440 and the 426 hemi. The 340 being the 2nd smallest.
I'm not trying to bash the success of the 340, everybody knows that they were the measure of small block performance to which all others would be judged during the 1970s, however the engine that resides under the hood of my Barracuda is not from the 1970s, it's a mid 60s B engine that's been bored 40 over. It has 2.08 intake and 1.74 exhaust valves that breathes well enough to ventilate a coal mine with high flow exhaust manifolds, not unlike the ones found on the highest performing 340s with stock exhaust. They are soon to be replaced by some headers, because at this point I can't find the original engine, transmission, rear end etc... So I might as well have the car I want. In reality neither the Barracuda or the Cuda had any factory installed Big Block engines after 1972, and actually the 360 was arguably the best post 1972 performer.
The fact is that the over square 383 performs like a small block pulling hard up high, but yet it retains some of that big block grunt down low, making it the half way point between the 318ci and the huge 440 or 426.
P.S. Ain't no stock 340 gonna catch me!
I think the stock '71 340 would take your stock '60s 383. Once you depart from stock, there's no telling what would happen. Maybe a stock 340 would not catch you, and yet a nitrous 4-cylinder would. There is always somebody faster. Always.
"P.S. Ain't no stock 340 gonna catch me!"
Wanna find out?
17:50 continued;
The 340 made the car that much lighter, and in turn made made the car better on the road, more nimble and the same car with a bigger engine would take that much more time to stop as well, so the big block cars were slightly harder on the brakes, and would have had a hard time beating a finely tuned AAR or 340 6pack Challenger in an open road race.
340s are getting more and more scarce. I've heard plenty of stories about people wrecking their 340 Dusters or Cudas beyond repair. I'd love to have a Duster or a Demon with a 340.
So I guess my car with a 340 could beat my car with a 383 depending on the type of race. I withdraw the post statement from my last comment.
There is no comparison as far as torque though so if the two had the same hp rating in whatever setup I'm sure big block would do just fine.
My Mopars were honestly prone to rust heavily, had electrical issues and body hardware issues as well. I sometimes forget the issues and had them. I am sure they are restored better than the factory built them today and garaged.
8:53
I already have. I've been to the drag strip and although it's only an 1/8 mile it still was a good indicator of how cars perform. They have no lack of small block competition usually and big blocks too. Some of the best races I've ever had were against SB cars including; Beaumont 327ci, Challenger 340, Camaro SS 350, Camaro exact displacement unknown probably 350 bored over, Corvette 350 had him by a nose until he hit the bottle 100 feet from the line, the list goes on and on. The strangest race I've ever had was against a Chevette style Pontiac Acadian, because it was bracket racing he got a huge head start and was nearly half way down the track when I got the green. I had my best reaction time, 60ft time, and 1/8 mile time however as I past him just before the line I realized that I was breaking under my time so I lost the race and subsequently was out of the competition.
In street stock drag racing it is hard to really judge who has a factory comparable setup. Half the cars that drove in had guys working on them for 2 or 3 hours stripping the exhaust, putting on slick tires etc...
So in reality they were not street legal when they went down the track. Not only that the first time I went to the drags, I had a full tank of gas and my tires were at 35 psi, so my trial runs were the slowest times I got all day. I soon learned that only nerds show up at the strip with a full tank of gas and 35 psi in their rubber. I'll never do that again. I shaved almost half a second just by dropping the tire pressure.
The 340 presents some interesting challenges when installed in any of the early 1970's Chrysler cars.
I'd love to have a 340 Duster or Demon; one of those 2 cars would look so nice sitting beside my Barracuda.
The funniest argument ever put forth to me was that the Barracuda didn't exist after 1969 and that only Cuda's were built past that time. So I proceeded to allow himself to dig the hole so deep he couldn't get out, then I told him I own 73 Barracuda and he still didn't believe me saying, "you have a Cuda not a Barracuda". I don't normally bet on anything, but I couldn't resist the temptation so I bet him $1000. He would not accept which was one of the smartest things he ever did because the next day I showed him a picture of my car with the Barracuda by Plymouth badging and he was stunned.
The 340 is a formidable engine that in some cases would beat my 383. My car would be worth more with a 340 rather than the 66 383, but find someone who will sell one for less than I paid for my car and I would be surprised unless it's irreparably damaged.
The 383 in my mind is one of the best engines ever built. The block is built with high nickel content making 90 thou over a possibility, the block extends way past the crank center line with built in gussets on the main journals, the heads are wedge heads capable of 11:1 easy and with a true 6 pack setup (having mechanical outboard carbs) and a lumpy cam they are hard to beat, even by the mighty HEMI. The only Chrysler engine I would rather have from the early to mid 60's is the 413 max wedge, but they have pretty much all been raced to the point of extinction.
I think if I upgrade to a different engine in my car, it will be a crate 426 hemi.
I haven't had any electrical issues with my '73 Charger or '71 Barracuda, although the Barracuda did get the typical rusting out of the rear deck underneath the vinyl top, and a bit of rust cropping up near the windshield wiper motor in the firewall. Odd place, I don't really understand it.
Sometimes I think that when Chrysler made those cars, they didn't realize what classics they would become. I had a '67 Chrysler that did have some electrical problems, but that was the only of my dozen or so Mopars from models 1964-1985 that did that.
"10:42"
No kidding their prone to rust. That's the main reason mine came of the road a few years back and is in the process of being restored. Somebody side swiped the rear passenger 1/4 panel, and instead of fixing it properly, they just mixed up a gallon of bondo and slapped it in the dent without straightening the panel. People like that shouldn't even be allowed to look at such a car. They didn't use an adhesion promoter, nor did they use a primer surfacer. I'm sick of looking at the job's performed by these idiots. I wish the people who originally fixed my Barracuda would have taken some pride in their work instead of defacing an art form.
Considering my review turned into a big steaming piece of crap on the ground. Does anyone have any experience with having their dash redone? I'm kind of afraid of sending it away. I don't want it to come back less than acceptable. The gear vendor over drive is intriguing as well, so that the BB isn't turning at a c hair under 3 grand on the highway. Any experience that will shed some light on my situation would be much appreciated.
Oh, don't be so hard on yourself about your review (the '73 Barracuda, right?). I thought it was a good review, too bad it got hijacked by the street racing diatribe. I own a '71 Barracuda and have not seen any activity on these Barracuda discussions for years, so I for one am glad that at least somebody is writing about them. Oddly enough, there aren't many muscle car posts on this site -- for instance the Roadrunner posts by people that don't actually own a real Roadrunner.
"8:51"
There is always someone faster than you on any given day.
This one time at the strip there was a Duster that could flat out just fly! It was eating up the competition including a late 60's Camaro with a blower. It made 8 sec flat 1/8 miles look pedestrian. The car wasn't even close to stock though it was tubbed, with huge wide tires and had everything stripped that could be, inner fenders, seats etc...
The car probably weighed under 2700 lbs with the driver.