Like other muscle- and ponycars in the early-'70s, sales of the Chrysler E-body Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Challenger were mortally wounded by a coalition of forces working against high-performance automobiles. By levying premium surcharges against these cars, the insurance industry made it almost impossible for young drivers to afford them. Further compounding the problem were voices in and out of the federal government criticizing Detroit for selling what they considered "lethal weapons." The final blow to musclecars was the industry's shift in emphasis from performance to research, as Detroit struggled to meet an onslaught of upcoming government mandates for cleaner engine emissions.
Here's the passenger-side...
Here's the passenger-side profile of Shunsuke "Matty" Matsurra's clay, dated April 14, 1969, which featured quarter-panels that ramped up sharply from the doors to a high deck and a long, sloping roofline. Like other proposals, it included a tunnel-back rear window. The front fenders dropped off dramatically, and the large fender air extractors and lack of quarter windows looked uneven.
These three factors severely impacted the market, and by 1974, the Barracuda and Challenger were doomed, as ponycar sales plummeted. And while proposals were made for a new generation of E-bodies, Chrysler management was not interested in perpetuating a product line that didn't fit into its plans for a future consisting of Aspens, Horizons, Omnis, Valiants, and Volares. There was simply no place for sporty, high-performance cars.
Ironically, Chrysler management pulled the plug on the Barracuda and Challenger just as the ponycar market was showing an upward trend that would reach its zenith at the end of the '70s. "We got out of the only part of the market that grew," Carl Cameron reflects. Cameron was a designer in the Dodge Studio, responsible for the '70 Challenger. "We abandoned it, and I always thought that was a mistake."
The Herlitz/Sampson clay,...
The Herlitz/Sampson clay, dated April 21, 1969, shows the fluid approach with extreme front overhang and aerodynamic nose; hidden headlamps would have been incorporated into the front end. Notice the lack of a quarter window and exhaust tips incorporated into the rockers ahead of the rear-wheel opening. The quarter-panels ramped up and then dropped back down toward the rear backlight, and the profile pulled down the greenhouse, making the overall profile lower.
A significant part of the problem, according to former Chrysler employees, was that management was made of financial executives with little or no understanding of the marketplace or the product. And, because the finance people now made meaningful decisions regarding product, the "car guys" and buyers no longer had the clout to push product through the system. Other critics pointed to 1968, when Chrysler had a record-breaking sales year but chose not to invest the money in product development. "Our primary business was designing, building, and selling cars," one former employee says. "The money wasn't put back into product. Instead, it was used to diversify into other areas, some of which were losers that cost Chrysler dearly."
There was also internal controversy about product engineering decisions. Many inside Chrysler questioned management's choice to make the '70 Challenger longer and wider than the Barracuda. Sharing body shells would have saved the corporation millions of dollars that eventually could have gone into future development.
This clay, on display in the...
This clay, on display in the Plymouth styling studio on May 2, 1969, combines elements from both the Matsurra and Herlitz/Sampson proposals. The quarters are not as high as before, with a strong character line along the mid flanks. The wheel openings are tall and round, and there is the hint of a quarter window on the driver-side profile. The front fender air extractors are trimmed in black, reading "CUDA" on the upper and "440" on the lower. Sharp-eyed Mopar fans will notice the two-piece W23 lightweight road wheels, which were recalled in 1969 for cracking almost before they were released.
The postmortems would come later, because in the spring of 1969, the Plymouth Advanced Design Studio was working on the next-generation Barracuda. Chrysler had a four-year lead time from design to production, and no one expected the E-body to be cancelled-so it was business as usual in the styling studio.
Two Designs, One Goal
Two advanced designs for the '75 Barracuda were slowly evolving. Designer Shunsuke "Matty" Matsurra created one version, influenced by fellow designer Don Hood's renderings. The other concept was by the team of John Herlitz and John Sampson. Both teams worked separately; however, they studied each other's concepts and shared ideas. "We struggled to define the Fourth Gen Barracuda," recalls designer Milt Antonick. "We wanted the car to look more fluid, and yet retain the Barracuda's muscular and aggressive look." Each team thought it was important to preserve the ramps found in the shape of the '70 to '74 E-body's front fenders and rear quarters, and to be sensitive to retaining a certain amount of product image.
The passenger side of the...
The passenger side of the same clay shows lower wheel openings, no quarter windows, and a fastback design with sloping back window. In place of the extractors are five gill-like slits in the front fender. The chrome racing-style mirror was too small and looked tacked on, and the flush door handle is vertical and has been moved upward (toward the windowsill).
Herlitz and Sampson advanced the fluid look, while Matsurra's clays carried a more muscular motif. "We started somewhat conservatively, with variations on the current Barracuda theme," Antonick says. "We then deliberately pushed the design theme as far toward a fluid, muscular look as possible." The teams discovered that doing so only exaggerated the idea.
After numerous cycles of sketches and clays, the teams narrowed it down from four designs to two. Both the Plymouth and Dodge studios viewed the proposals. "I saw them," Cameron says, "and they were beautiful. Matty Matsurra did beautiful body sides. They were neat, and I liked them."
The final proposal for the '75 Barracuda was actually a blend of both designs. "Because we had two models," Antonick says, "we retained a variation of the Barracuda's fender forms on one clay, and tried to enhance it in the other." The vestiges of the '70 to '74 'Cuda fender forms were still intact, while the fluid look was evident in the rolling quarter-panels and hood.
 This is the front end of the...  This is the front end of the same clay, now outside in the styling studio's courtyard on May 2, 1969. Two different hood and grille proposals were shown. The large opening at the valance on the right side included a concave hood, while the left-hand side has a more traditional hood line, tipped with a bumper that has a recessed fog lamp. This angle illustrates how the driver-side fender also bulges out farther over the wheel opening. |  Another proposal on the Matsurra...  Another proposal on the Matsurra clay was this low, smooth, semi-fastback backlight, which moved the header panel rearward. The floating spoiler was retained on this clay. Notice how the upper air extractor wraps around the top of the front fender. |  Check out these two variations...  Check out these two variations on the Fourth Gen Barracuda theme. On the left is one of Matsurra's clays, with its deep-tunneled backlight fairing into quarters. The quarter-panel ramps were similar to the '70-'74 design. The spoiler was center mounted on the decklid, and blended into the ends that were in line with the tops of the quarter panels. The taillamp panel was recessed above what would have been a concealed rear bumper, and on the right is Don Hood's "Vestige" clay, with two different proposals for taillamp and rear bumper configurations. Note the extreme ramping over the rear-wheel opening. |