There are cars that we stumble upon every now and again that leave us bewildered with how awesome they are and this 1973 ‘Cuda is one of those. Why? For starters the fit and finish of the thing is spectacular. The paint is brilliant and we dig the perfect and mile deep black accented by the bright slashes on the fenders, the shaker scoop, and the hockey stick call out striped on the rear quarters. We love the interior with the Corbeau seats, the perfectly fitted roll bar, the suspension with its nice pieces, coil overs, and beefed Dana 60 out back along with the Viper spec T-56 that sits in front of it. But the real thing that sets this car apart? That’s the engine and what an engine it is. A 462ci bored and stroked Dodge NASCAR mill that the seller claims is good for more than 900hp on pump gas, likely at an ungodly RPM range.
When this car was built, whoever was in charge of the budget didn’t have a tough job because it looks like the term budget had not been translated into whatever language said person was speaking. We’re not complaining because the car is so awesome. Because we’re not “no expense spared” type guys it is always interesting to see what happens when someone who does not have much in the way of financial limitations goes all out on a car. The asking price for this thing on eBay right now is $99,995 and it looks worth every penny. The engine itself must have been mind-boggling with regard to price, the body work was likely 10s of thousands of dollars, and if you want to sit and do the math, you can run up a $100,000 tally on this thing in a hurry. Those CCW wheels? Not cheap!
Perhaps the shame in all of it is that whoever had the car built really didn’t drive it much. There are only 1,500 miles on the odometer after the build according to the guy who is selling the thing and we’re wondering if that is because it is too much of a handful, if the person who had it built ran out of interest, or maybe something else happened. Either way, this is something we’d love to do One Lap of America in or some other long distance racing type event. With a 40 gallon fuel cell, you’ll be able to eat up some miles even with a heavy right foot!
We’re going to need a moment alone here…
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS OF THIS BOMBSHELL OF A 1973 ‘CUDA
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EBAY LISTING FOR THIS INCREDIBLE 1973 ‘CUDA
How do those black market kidney sales work? I’m filling the bathtub up with ice already.
“Coolest Mopar Pro-Tourer Ever”
How could you proclaim that about this car? Drivetrain is all there, its everything else thats a Turd Ferguson-ish. First off it has a Shaker scoop stuck to a flat hood that isnt even hooked to the motor. Then it has those cheesy (for a Mopar) Corvette hash mark stripes, followed up by incorrect font hockey stick stripes. Then its got a tall B-body pistol grip thats a mile in the air. The back tires look like they are streatched to reach the rims, guessing they could have used about 2″ less width. The thing estetcally is a train wreck.
Thanks for saying it first . I mean really . A \’ shaker\’ hood that isnt …. that dreadful interior … irrelevant paint and stripes …. go thru all that and NOT put a Viper IRS under its rump ??? …. a stupid engine choice for a street legal Pro Tourer if there ever was one. Hell … the only bragging rights this thing has is the one that makes the least amount of sense . The freaking NASCAR motor ! Yeah … that will work out real well … that and the Black Market kidneys Mr Martin mentions ..
Hell … I KNOW for a fact there are better Pro Street Cudas floating around than this one
I wouldn’t kick it out of the garage. My only gripe is why go through all the trouble to stoke n poke a 358 CID NASCAR engine ( that makes 800hp or more) and not make much more HP? I mean is still turns 9k rpm so they didnt stroke it to bring the power peak down. That car would be an absolute beast on a road trip or race with a 4.10 gear!
just checked ebay motors can be had for $18,000. more or less. not that expensive
sorry , just looked at add .nascar does not have billet motors