1969 Plymouth Barracuda - Family Heirloom

We can only imagine the scene at the Plymouth dealership in Riverside, California, in 1969. It was probably littered with A-, B-, and E-Body cars with everything from slant sixes to mighty Hemis. Among the new Detroit iron on the lot was this 340 Formula S, four-speed Barracuda. It was the kind of car that muscle car guys drool over today: manual steering, manual brakes, minimal options-just motor, a manual trans, and diminutive weight. This was the last year that the svelte Barracuda would be built on the A-Body platform, moving up to the E-Body in the next model year. This particular Barracuda was unaware that it was about to be adopted into a Mopar-loving family. That's when Doug's grandpa, Luis, scooped up the car and started using it as a daily driver. Over the next 13 years, it was fed and cared for along with Luis' other two Barracudas.

Fate usually sneaks up on us. A simple problem sidelines us, and busy lives keep us from attending to a problem and moving on. The same is true for this car and, in 1982, a shift linkage mishap left the car parked. With other cars in the stable, the shift linkage problem went undiagnosed, and the slow decline of the muscle car began. The stories always start the same: It ran when I parked it. But left alone, cars always decline in condition.

Luis died in 1991, and his collection of Barracudas was distributed to his three sons. The car was moved, but the gradual decay of the Barracuda continued until 2003. That's the year that Doug inked a deal with his dad. Doug would take the car and get the chance to restore it, as long as he didn't cut it up. And his dad could borrow the keys whenever he wanted.

With a modest budget, Doug dove into the project. His plan was to just freshen up the engine and transmission, and put the car back on the road. How many times have we heard that? One thing always leads to another, and the project snowballs. As if temptation can't manifest in one's head well enough, Doug's brother Bryan started whispering evil ideas in his ear. Build it better. Change this. Upgrade that. Before long, an engine rebuild grew into the construction of a stroked small-block. Then the rest of the drivetrain would need to come up to par to accommodate the 500-plus horsepower engine. The plans to simply convert the car back into a driver were retired, and the two set off on a complete rebuild of the car.

The car was stripped, literally. Strip Clean in Santa Ana, California, dipped the car once every nut and bolt was removed. The car then spent the next two years in paint jail. Doug says that in the end, the paint turned out well. While it was there, Doug and Bryan had plenty of time to clean, paint, repair, and replace everything that would attach to the PPG dual-stage black painted body. In just six months after springing the car from the spray booth, Doug and Bryan assembled the car. Doug says they spent countless hours painstakingly assembling the car so it would never need to come apart to this extent again.

The engine was built by Sloan Racing. The numbers-matching 340 was bored and a 3.79-inch Callies crank pumped up the displacement to 394 ci. That's a nice heritage number for a Hemi, but it's a fantastic number for a little LA-series engine. Dougans did all of the machine work before 11:1 CP pistons on Eagles H-beam rods were slid into the bores and torqued onto the crank.

The original four-speed manual transmission was put on a shelf. Instead, a competition-ready 904 was built by Pro Trans, complete with a low gearset to improve launches. A relatively mild 10-inch torque converter with a stall speed of 3,500 rpm was selected, and a Precision Performance Products shifter keeps Doug in total control of the tranny.

The rear suspension is a departure from a typical Mopar buildup. Instead of a thick pack for the rear leaf springs, Doug used split monoleaf springs. CalTracs traction bars eliminate spring wrap and plant the tires, while Rancho RS9000 adjustable shocks dampen up and down motion. Never heard of these shocks? You're probably not alone. These are popular for off-road vehicles, featuring nine settings of shock valving that you can select by twisting a knob. The e.t.'s that Doug turns on a small tire are testament that these shocks certainly aren't hurting the car's launch.

At the front, Doug combined tried-and-true Mopar components with some new technology. To gain disc brakes, '73 A-Body spindles were mounted to the car. This also provides a larger bolt pattern at the wheels. But rather than use factory rotors and calipers, a lightweight Wilwood kit was installed for high-performance use. He then added Firm Feel upper control arms. These A-arms are tubular in construction for higher strength and rigidity, and they accept the '73 spindles. Mopar drag torsion bars are used to spring the front while QA1 adjustable shocks dampen the movement. Between the QA1s up front and the RS9000s in back, Doug can fine tune the reaction of the suspension to accommodate track conditions, and also make a quick change from dragstrip tune to street tune.

The rear axle is the original Chrysler 83/4 housing, stuffed with a 4.30 gear and a Richmond spool. The original-design drum brakes were also left out back, and were balanced to work with disc brakes up front.

As is the case with nearly every project car, the cost ended up being significantly more than what was originally budgeted. Doug estimates that the total makeover of grandpa's Barracuda cost five to six times more than he originally had in mind. The three-year project brought Doug's parents and brother into the effort, giving them lots of quality family time that adult families rarely get. Doug says that the Barracuda wouldn't be what it is today without Bryan's knowledge of drivetrain combinations. With his help, the car just plain works on the dragstrip. We're sure it's far from Doug's young mind at this point, but we have to wonder who the car will be passed onto next.