Watergate. OPEC. Disco. No wonder 1974 seemed like a tough time.
For Plymouth (and car makers in general), the performance era
was completely gone; buyers wanted economy so they didn't have
to spend so much time in the gas lines. Chrysler's overall sales
were down a huge 34 percent. The 'Cuda was a far cry from its
'70 predecessor; the legacy of the big-block beasts and race-
breed AAR 340 was being continued by a single beacon, the 360
four-barrel, rated at just 245 net horsepower. Then, in the
middle of the '74 production run in March, the factory pulled
the plug on the Barracuda altogether, and only 4,989 'Cudas,
most of them 318 models, came off the dealer lots that year.
Divided into 761 automatics and 398 four-speeds with 360
motivation, the Pistol-Grip-stirred example shown here is owned
by airline pilot Mark Selby of Riverview, Florida. Mark bought
this car in 1993 from a Dodge dealership service manager in
Cincinnati, Ohio, who in turn had taken it in from the original
owners, an elderly couple, as a