Since when did a car need to be a security blanket in order to be enjoyed? We can appreciate a nice cruiser as much as the next guy. Button-tufted leather couches, a ride supple enough to keep the water still in the glass yet able to absorb the impact of running over the next moron who is so engrossed with the podcast that they are listening to that they didn’t see four thousand pounds of automobile driving down the road they crossed. We’d ride in the back of a Cadillac, Lincoln, Chrysler or whatever you bring out just fine, but there is one thing we won’t be able to do: enjoy the CAR. We’ll enjoy the luxury, we’ll enjoy the scenery, but as far as the car itself, that’s a whole different ballgame.
I’ve subscribed to the idea that the more wild the ride, the happier I am. As a teenager, a 305-powered Monte Carlo got the blood rushing. The first time I cut loose with a late-model GTO was unreal…and the second time was so much better, I had to buy a set of tires afterwards. The ’73 Comet that I got wild with in the dirt and gravel and the mud was a fix I came back to again and again. But the high-water mark was set in a faded, blue Plymouth ‘Cuda that I knew little about then and have dreamed of duplicating ever since. I’ve never, before or since, have run into a car so willing to inject adrenaline into every last little thing it would do without having a Brinks truck worth of cash or corporate backing making it so…that’s why that psychotic, nitrous-injected Cobra drift car from a few SEMAs ago doesn’t quite meet the mark, even though it had me swearing uncontrollably while laughing like I’d lost my damn mind.
The ‘Cuda was aggression defined. Its idle was a threat. Its stance was that of a dog ready to chew you a brand new opening. It felt hot, it smelled of petroleum with that tell-tale hint of race fuel. The torque shove was more like a black boot kicking you in the chest. You want to know why the ‘Cuda and it’s Dodge Challenger twin have become icons? You want to know why every car of the last twenty years has this rough shape? Two reasons: One was the kickback on the 2004-06 Pontiac GTO, because it “wasn’t enough of a muscle car”, even though I will tell anyone who will listen that if they believe that, that they are full of it. The other is that the Plymouth scared you and you absolutely loved every second of it.
I’ve not watched the video above yet. But I’ll say, having lived “back in the day”, the 440 was the best street motor to come out of Detroit. My mom’s ’67 440 GTX was an absolute beast. My brother’s ’68 383 Road Runner was OK, and his 440 Superbird was good, but a bit heavy. My ’69 Dart GTS 383 would outrun anything in town, except mom’s 440 GTX. The 440 was an absolute beast, and it’d run forever. A hemi was a tuning nightmare as a street engine, was no comparison to the earlier race hemis, and personally, I never saw one that would run fast and consistantly like a 440 would. Now as to the ‘Cuda reviewed here, I never liked the E body’s, Mopar went to look for the Camaro crowd, and I aways thought that, in 1970, the new Camaros looked like what a Barracuda should look like, and vice versa. I’d like a test of the 440+6 pack cars, please. They were the best street warriors anyone ever built, until recently, when new cars are far and away superior to anything we could have dreamt of back then. I’ll keep my nostalgia for these cars in my photo album, thank you…
Here. Here.
1971 may have been the last “real” year for the muscle car but there was still going to be one car produced that could whomp on most everything around, including a 1971 440 Cuda, and that was the 1973 and 74 Super Duty Trans Am’s and Formula’s. I’m not slighting the Cuda or the 440 by any means, I love Chryslers. But the Super Duty’s were bad machines, take a spin in one properly tuned and set up with a 3:42 gear set in the rear end and a 4 speed transmission. You’ll be impressed.
You have to live and breathe E body Mopar’s and soon you will realize nothing else comes close. I have owned my ’71 340 Challenger convertible since ’83 and it is the most fun car I have driven. Back in the day I put a lot of miles on a co-worker’s ’70 400 GTO and a friend’s low miles ’69 351 Windsor Mach l Mustang. I was alway’s so happy to get back behind the wheel of my Challenger. No comparison, the Challenger was ball’s to the wall fun and the end of the day, that’s what matter’s to me.