As the 1960’s drew to a close, the high-performance car market was in full stride. The pony car market offered some of the hottest cars going. Young performance-minded buyers flocked to the dealerships in search of the ever-higher horsepower car, with the emphasis on straight-line acceleration. Plymouth and Dodge answered the call with the all-new Barracuda and Challenger. Introduced on a new platform designated the “E-body”, this platform was designed to house every engine Dodge and Plymouth had to offer. Nine different engines were available, from the lowly Slant Six all the way to the awe-inspiring 440 Six- barrel and 426 Hemi engines, and everything in between.
In sync with the performance image of the all new Barracuda and Challenger, the designers delivered a multitude of paint colors and options. Vibrant paints known as High Impact colors such as Tor-Red, Plum Crazy, Panther Pink, Vitamin-C, Top Banana and others adorned the exterior of the cars. The option list was packed with a variety of performance options, from Shaker hoods, Gull Wing spoilers, Pistol Grip shifters, Hockey Stick stripes, Rallye wheels, to Super Performance axle packages, and more. It offered the buyer the ability to choose and build a car from mild to wild and as a result, Dodge and Plymouth designed and built one of the most exciting pony cars of the high-performance era.
The introduction of the new all new “E-bodies” may have been late to the high performance market, but the impact these cars had are legends in automotive history. Even though the all new Dodge Challengers and Plymouth Barracudas only saw production from 1970-1974, they are some of the most highly sought after muscle cars ever produced.
-Highway 61
