Barracuda (Third generation (E-body))

From Valiant Derivative to Purpose-Built Plymouth had answered the Mustang since April 1964, but the first two Barracudas were Valiant derivatives and the market treated them as such. For 1970 Chrysler committed to a purpose-built platform: the E-body, a shortened and widened version of the intermediate B-body that also carried the Dodge Challenger. Ate Up With Motor characterises the decision as a more-is-better answer to the second-generation car's disappointing sales, and identifies the miscalculation plainly: had the E-body arrived in 1967 it would have met the pony-car market at its peak instead of at its collapse. In 1970 the Mustang outsold the Barracuda by more than three to one, and insurers were surcharging drivers under 25 by more than $1,200 a year, over a quarter of a car's price.

Herlitz's Shape and the E-body Package John Herlitz gave the car the long-bonnet, short-deck proportions the segment demanded. The wheelbase came down to 108 inches, roughly six inches shorter than the 1969 car, while the bonnet grew by more than a foot and the body by several inches across. The fastback was dropped; hardtop and convertible remained. Unitary construction and Chrysler's longitudinal torsion-bar front suspension carried over, but the wider engine bay was the point: the 383 and 440, awkward installations in the A-body cars, now fitted without argument, and the 426 Hemi fitted at all.

1970: Eleven Engines and the AAR The launch range ran from a 198 cu in slant six to the Hemi, with the 340, 383 and 440 in several states of tune between. Performance cars wore the 'Cuda name as a separate series rather than an option package, with a Shaker bonnet scoop available, hockey-stick side stripes carrying the engine callout, and a Hemi option at $871.45. The one-year AAR 'Cuda existed to homologate Plymouth's Trans-Am entry: a 340 with three Holley two-barrels on an aluminium manifold, a block webbed for four-bolt mains, a glassfibre cold-air bonnet, chrome exhaust trumpets exiting ahead of the rear wheels, front and rear spoilers, staggered tyres and a strobe side stripe, at $3,966. Dan Gurney's All American Racers campaigned the race cars, de-stroked to 303.8 cu in for the class limit. Gurney and Swede Savage took three poles and a best finish of second, and won nothing.

1971: Gills, Quad Lamps and the End of the Big Blocks 1971 is the only E-body Barracuda year with four headlamps, and the only year the 'Cuda carried the fender louvres behind the front wheels that everyone calls gills, alongside billboard side decals naming the engine. It is also the year compression came down for unleaded fuel and the range began to thin. Sales fell from 55,499 to 18,690. The Hemi 'Cuda that year is counted in dozens rather than hundreds, the convertible in single or low double figures depending on who is counting. At the end of the model year the 383, the 440 and the Hemi left the E-body for good.

Decline and 1 April 1974 1972 brought a single-headlamp face, the loss of the convertible and the Gran Coupe, and a three-engine range of slant six, 318 and a detuned 340. 1973 added the federally mandated bumpers and, against the trend, a recovery to 22,213 cars. For 1974 the 360 replaced the 340 at 245 bhp SAE net. Production ended after 11,734 cars, most accounts giving 1 April 1974, ten years to the day after the first Barracuda went on sale.

Rust first. The E-body's sills, floors, rear quarters, screen aperture and rear pillars all trap water, and lower door skins go the same way; bubbling around the windscreen surround usually means the car needs more than it looks. Panel gaps and weld quality were inconsistent from new, so poor shut lines are not proof of an accident, but they make one harder to see.

Overheating is the standing mechanical complaint, particularly on big-block cars whose cooling was working hard when new; milky oil, staining around hose connections and a tired water pump are things to find before purchase rather than after. The torsion-bar front suspension degrades with age and announces itself as creaking on full lock, and poor camber geometry was noted even in period testing. Original Six Barrel carburettors and their aluminium manifolds are frequently missing or substituted.

Front drums were standard and are not adequate behind a 440 or a Hemi; disc conversions are common, and reversible ones preserve more value. Interiors suffer: vinyl fails, the plasti-wood trim lifts, dashboards crack. Three federal recall campaigns cover the 1971 car - 71V004000 on a brake shoe anchor pin whose failure could cost the front brakes, 71V067000 on disc rotors causing pull or imbalance, and 71V117000 on a power steering hose - and on a car of this age it is worth knowing whether any of them were carried out.

The paperwork is the car. A 'Cuda is a separate series rather than an option package, so the first two characters of a genuine one read BS: BS23 for the hardtop, BS27 for the convertible, against BH and BP for the base car and Gran Coupe. The fifth character is the engine code, which is why a real Hemi convertible reads BS27R and an AAR reads BS23J; the sixth is the model year and the seventh the assembly plant. Chassis BS27R1B269588, the 1971 Hemi 'Cuda convertible RM Sotheby's sold in 2007, reads out exactly that way.

The fender tag on the driver's-side inner wing repeats engine, transmission, axle, paint, trim, build date and scheduling number, read bottom to top and left to right. On E-bodies the last eight VIN digits are also stamped into the body, including the driver's-side firewall below the cowl, with the first and second digits transposed. That stamping is the check that matters, because a fender tag is riveted on and a VIN plate of this period can be held by two screws. Broadcast sheets turn up under and inside seats, above the fuel tank and behind trim panels. Galen's Tag Service reviews a fender tag, dash VIN and any broadcast sheet or window sticker against Chrysler records, and a registry listing is what the top of this market expects to see.

Where the numbers disagree with each other the car is a problem however it presents. RM Sotheby's catalogues Hemi 'Cuda clones as clones, and one 1970 example sold online for $48,600 against a coupe benchmark near $288,000 as of August 2026. That gap is documentation.

As of August 2026 classic.com records an average sale of $142,996 across the third-generation Barracuda market, with 64 cars listed and the market split into standard variants, 'Cuda and Hemi 'Cuda. The 'Cuda sub-market benchmark sits at $120,712, the Hemi 'Cuda coupe at $288,247 and the Hemi 'Cuda convertible at $2,821,429. The full Hemi 'Cuda benchmark of $412,244 spans roughly 21 tracked transactions, from $116,000 for a 1970 car in March 2024 to $3,300,000 for a 1971 convertible in January 2026. Ordinary cars sit elsewhere entirely: the lowest tracked third-generation result is $5,500 for a 1971 Barracuda in May 2026.

Auction evidence over two decades brackets the top. RM Sotheby's sold a 1971 Hemi 'Cuda convertible, chassis BS27R1B269588, for $2,420,000 at Arizona in 2007. Mecum bid a four-speed 1971 Hemi 'Cuda convertible originally exported to France to $4.8 million at Indianapolis in May 2021 without meeting a reserve reported at up to $6.5 million; the same house had set the model record at $3.5 million in 2014. At Kissimmee on 17 January 2026 the first 1971 Hemi 'Cuda convertible built, in Sno White with a TorqueFlite, made $3.3 million including the ten per cent buyer's premium, so roughly $3 million at the hammer.