A four-door Barracuda? YES!

Scan of 1970 Plymouth sales poster from author's collection

 

The third-generation Plymouth Barracuda built from 1970 to 1974 used the Chrysler Corporation two-door E-body platform shared with the Dodge Challenger.

 

 

For years, the internet contained stories of a red with black vinyl top four-door hardtop 1970 Plymouth Barracuda styling exercise seen in the center of Chrysler’s Highland Park, Michigan in the fall of 1969.  Dave Walden and Steve Been of ECS Automotive Concepts near St. Louis, Missouri decided to replicate the legend.

 

 

 

The starting point of the project was a cut-up and stripped four-door roof and pillars from a 1972 four-door Dodge Coronet. After the roof was chopped an inch, every piece of the car was hand-built as the crew massaged and modified both original and reproduction parts, a process that took six years and an estimated 10,000 hours of labor.

 

 

 

This running and driving “what if” four-door Barracuda shown at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show rides on a 118-inch wheelbase, weighs 3500 pounds, and is powered by a 275 horsepower Chrysler ‘LA’ 340 cubic inch V-8 fitted with a 4 -barrel carburetor 275 mated to a three-speed Torqueflite automatic transmission with a Chrysler 8-3/4 inch rear-end.  

 

Photos by the author