Sept 1999 Car of the Quarter

CAR OF THE QUARTER . . . September 1999

'68 Plymouth Barracuda................... by Charlie Gray

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Funny how little things can sometimes set big things into motion. In my case that little thing was a paint color called Radar Blue. The big thing being finding a body style that the paint would look killer on. Well, fellow club member, Paul Gaspard solved that problem when he told me of a 68 Barracuda with a broken slant 6 that was for sale. After playing phone tag with the owner (17 year old, Andrew Procknow), a very nice deal was struck. Now with a broken car in my driveway I began doing the catalog shuffle.

Fortunately, a friend, Brad Powell, in Emporia, Kansas was opening what I call a Restification Shop. He agreed to use the Barracuda as a test bed to check the skills of his paint and body man. Brad picked up the car on 1 Jan 98. Along with the car I sent a detailed list of parts to be used. No deviation from the list was done without checking with me first. Brad now agrees with Karen, my wife, that I am a fairly hard-headed person. In only 14 months and 27 days the car was back in the driveway looking nothing like it did when it left in 98. To say Karen and I were pleased would be an understatement. Karen even agreed the paint combination, Radar Blue with a 18 inch wide Florescent Orange stripe down the center of the car with the stripe going into interior was "Unique".

For motivation a 340 bored .030 over with TRW Forged pistons with advertised 10.5 to 1 compression ratio were used. The camshaft came from Hughes Engines with duration of 223/230 degrees at .050 504/515 lift. The heads are 915 castings with big valves also gasket matched with the exhaust being ported. Air and fuel are handled by a Edelbrock intake and a 750 Edelbrock carburetor. Electric fuel pump and pressure regulator are used. (I've got a 6-pack setup just begging to be put on). For a torque converter a TCI 11 inch Break-A-Way was used along with a TCI Super Pro prepped 904 automatic trans.

Further down the line the rearend is a 3.23 geared Sure Grip with Moser axles with 3-inch studs, all wheel bolt patterns are now 4 1/2". Exhaust gases are handled by Mopar Performance Metallic-Ceramic headers that feed into 2 1/2 inch pipe with 30 inch Turbo Tube mufflers with Megs oval tips exiting in front of the rear wheels. The front end was redone using a disc brake Small Block K frame and torsion bar setup from a donor Dart. Subframe connectors round out the underside.

The interior is basically stock-except the bucket seats are out of a Infinity J30. Front wheels are 15X6 Cragar Street Stars shod with B.F. Goodrich 225 x 60 - 15s. Rear wheels are 15X8 Street Stars shod with 245 x 60 - 15s.