1971 Plymouth Barracuda vs. Ford Mustang Dealer Promo Film Mopar is a registered trademark of Chrysler Group LLC. Master Tech series training materials are the property of Chrysler Group LLC and are used with permission. MyMopar.com
I love how it was mentioned that convertibles for the 'Cuda are available with the Hemi; only 9 people opted for this option in '71, but my goodness, who knew how valuable those 9 would become!?
Few people wanted the Hemi. Plymouth was losing its reputation for quality. I owned a 73 Cuda with 340, four speed pistol grip. I loved it until I hit the brakes.
I do not believe it is fully explained by numbers. why then, are Studebakers or some other low number cars not worth even more? or even for example, 1971 GTOs, only about 10,500 were sold. they sell for good money, but not Cuda money. no, it is a combination of moderate numbers and being extra cool.
@@drm9979 like Ronin Kraut stated--both supply and demand. EVERYONE now wants an original Hemi 'Cuda. This demand has pushed the values waaaaay up. Apparently a '70 or '71 Hemi 'Cuda convertible sold for $50k back in the 80s. 'Cudas with 440s were like $1500 back then. Hardtop Hemi anything were already becoming collectibles back then selling for $10k or more. Yes, surely there were Hemis sold by widows for a couple grand, but fast-forward into the 90s and most muscle cars were getting dearer, with the rare models even dearer.
@ I was just wondering who this video comparison would have been made for, ya know because it's ten minutes long. But that makes sense. Thanks bud!! 👍👍
3 года назад
@@77yogurt Well as you can see this was an "internal" film made for their salesmen. When a new car comes up, usually the dealerships are sent such films to watch so they known which points to emphesize to the clients. These films weren't supposed to be seen by the general public but thanks to RU-vid we can enjoy them in all their cheesyness ! Now we're ready to sell some Dodges like it's '73 ! 🤣
I bought a 1972 Barracuda in 1978 for $75. The car was perfect inside and out but it had a bad engine. I dropped in a 340 Magnum, put on a set of Crager SS wheels with Road Hugger white letter tires. Drove it a few weeks and sold it for $1200 dollars. I only had about $500 in the car. Boy did I rake in the dough on that sell. $1200 was a lot of money in 1978!!! Of course years later I wished I had kept all the cars I had back in my younger years. DAMN!!
+Kaleb Brown I had a 72 Mustang Cleveland and a 70 Cuda 340. Liked them both but the Mustang was a better car. The Cuda was "klunky" and noisy. The Mustang was a tighter ride. Both good cars, but you don't have to feel sorry for anyone but the Hemi owner that sold them cheap when gas prices went up in the last 70s.
Yeah you sure would, I wonder the price increase for the HEMI?? Almost all of them ended up at the drag track until something happened or they just got rusted out but don't forget the 2 gas shortages and those cars became WORTHLESS for years, I am 63 now and knew a guy who had a mint 70 440 6 pack Cuda with 4 speed and 430 gears, he could get mid 13's, that's about all they really ran back in the day, most cars were high 14's
No problem Sir.. just drive whatever mistake you bought before and Just pull that heap! into your Local Plymouth Dealership..... Oh Wait🤔.... Dang it.. well never mind then.. 😒
A friend of mine had a 1971 Mach 1. It was like riding in a coal mine, as it was so dark and the windows were so small. But it was cool, though. It ate transmissions regularly.
My 71 Mach convertible and 72 Mach fastback drive beautifully and are bullet proof. Thousands are still on the road today, unlike Cudas. My 73 Cuda 340 was an awesome car in high school, but it handled sloppy.
the 70-71 cuda were quite possibly the most beautiful pony car ever created, i would sell my soul for an aar in any color or a hemi cuda.let me know when my car is ready.
I owned a '71 Mach 1 in high school ('74-76). Cars were so pretty back then in the early 70's. That's why I'm on my 3rd modern Dodge Challenger (Hellcat Redeye). The retro styling is great, if not quite as pretty as the original.
And the Barracuda for '71 has 4 headlights! Mustang only has 2. So why did the Barracuda go to 2 headlights the following year if 4 were so much better?
As a Mopar guy, I'd take the Cuda---having said that, some of those selling points were just stupid. Who cares where the door locks and front seatback release are? God forbid someone should have to reach over to unlock the door, or bend over to move the seatback forward. Oh, and I like the part about how "a veteran reporter said"---without sources, that's like saying "my buddy told me" lol
I would say hands down the Cuda is the best car. I feel that Ford kind of lost there way with the rear window. And the 71 Cudas was the best looking car for that year
The rear window on the Mach is perfect. No need to see the planes in the sky behind my 72 Mach. It shows the road behind me perfect. Best looking roof line ever produced.
@@georgebarich2997 yech is all I can say about the mustang.crap engine's ugly stying.but I can say this is much better than what came in 1974 the even uglier mustang ll.horrible car's.
@@justenough730 yeah, those later Mustangs looked real bad. They fixed themselves with the Fox body, then got a bit ugly with in the mid 90s. Newer ones are not bad at all, think better than new Camaros in general, but that's my opinion. I owned a 69 Camaro, 71 Nova, a few Chevelles, etc..
The Cuda is by far my favorite car, they put Mustang to shame. My dad had a Mach 1 back in the early 70s, I ask if ran against ran it against a Cuda. He told me a 340 Cuda outran his 351c, he had to change the camshaft, exhaust and carburetor to be able to outrun the Cuda. I can get a lot of HP out of a Mopar, they run great and take a lot of abuse.
Tb Very very true.. Im a 440/ 6pack guy but would love a HEMI AS WELL. that said....... Those 340 cars??? They were bad ass. High winding powerful little buggers. I had a friend with a 340 Dart" TF TRANNY AND HEADERS WITH 391'S I HONESTLY NEVER SAW THAT thing lose to another small block car unless it was big time built.
Plymouth had a thing with actual instruments. A friend of mine had a very base level 90s Sundance, It had manual windows only a radio (no tape or CD) really no options ordered at all - But dang it had actual gauges!
I can see what Plymouth were trying to say regarding how much the Mustang had moved away from it's original form. I never thought of it that way before. Well whatever it was or became it looks invisible beside the sexy looking Barracuda.
I got my first car when I was 17 years old (1973). It was a '66 Mustang w/289. The car was fairly new at the time so it wasn't a classic or collectible. 2 years later I got my '69 Roadrunner. Well, MOPAR is a lot better car and a LOT faster than the Mustangs. Still, the Mustang was a total "chick magnet" and girls didn't give a 2nd look at a Roadrunner, Cuda, Challenger, Dart or Duster. Mustang was never a "muscle car" and shouldn't even be compared to MOPAR when talking about "muscle". Still, in the early '70's you could drive up to a girl's house for that big date and she would melt if it was a Mustang. To truly get muscle car history right you must talk to guys who Lived it...
They sold the Plymouth PT Cruiser as a Chrysler why not a Chrysler Barracuda convertible? I would love to see a 2 door Hemi Charger SXT with police wheels dog dish hubcaps and a beep beep horn for $25K.
Great video! Mustang and Cuda are my two favorite cars. They go in order of 69/70 Shelby, Boss 351, 70' Boss 302, Cuda AAR. The Mustang is the better made car and were much better sellers. The Boss 351 ran the 1/4 in 13.80@104 while the 440 cuda ran 13.72@106. Light to light I'd take the Boss as well in the twists over a BB Cuda.. The 70 Hemi Cuda ran the 1/4 at 13.10@107 and I would guess the 71' would be similar. Mustangs and Cuda's had the best hood scopes, colors, and graphics.
It is a mystery to me why Ford moved away from the 69-70 Mustang body style, which was beautiful, to the 71. but in any case, the early 70s Cudas were the best looking car of the muscle car era, so it does not surprise me that those 16,000 or whatever 1971 Cudas are now a gold mine.
Ford had a two year design change policy. Also, they made it longer to fit the big blocks better. But 71 was the last year for big blocks in Mustang and Cougar. Management also changed.
I like Mopar the best. I have to admit that the bench seat/column shift on the Barracuda/Challenger didn't look that good. I had a 73 Challenger with buckets. It was triple white. Kewl car.
Mopar is slang for Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth cars. It was derived from the old MOtor PARts division of Chrysler. So the Barracuda in this commercial is considered a Mopar.
I guess they felt for 71 they had to change the barracuda somehow but personally the 70 front grill still looks best, I guess others thought so too so the changed back to single headlamps in 72~74 but then they changed the rear lights to two rounds ones. I still think the 70 cuda is the peak of muscle car good looks.
I've had several 71 'Cudas over the years. How anyone buying a musclecar in 1971 could've seen a new 71 'Cuda, pistol grip, high impact color, shaker, rubber bumpers, etc, and gone "nah". Irrespective of money considerations, of course. WTF!
I had both cars when I was 18 in 78/79 the 71 Cuda looked good had a 318 ran ok didn't stop for shit, or corner well for that matter, I sold it to a guy in my neighbor hood cant remember what I paid for it or sold it for, but I saved from the time I was 14 to buy it from my dad. The 73 ford had a 302 and I liked it better it just drove better was green and had a perfect interior it was 1200bucks which seemed like alot. I sold it as I was really hard pressed for cash and picked up a71 Datsun 510 it was rusted out, I paid 400 bucks for it and man what a blast to drive way more fun then either the Cuda, or mustang course I wish I had anyone of these cars today been looking for a 510 for ever...
The original Gone In 60 Seconds pretty much teaches you how to break into and steal both of these cars.... The first car they steal is a Barracuda out of the airport parking lot, then the Mach 1 was stole about 3 times (different cars)
Masterfull Mopar Tech comparison. The lack of through flow ventilation was traded off over Mustangs bad agility, space utilisation, visibility and parking lot protection.
I definitely am a Chrysler guy but the 71 72 73 Mach ones I love❤❤❤👍👍👍 major blind spots in those cars but I didn't care I love them. 👍😁 By the way I do own a 1966 formula s barracuda for speed 83 quarter rear😂❤👍
It's crazy to think that this video stopped being useful 44 years ago. And is again useful now, I was convinced that the Cuda is a better car than the crappy and commonplace Mustang.
@ 8:11 minutes shows a 2 sets of drum brake linings and what appears to be front suspension the top being bonded drum linings the barracuda the bottom the mustang the thing is that the mustang didn't have drum brakes in the front they have since 1967 front disc brakes.
Funny i started working at Chrysler engineering in 69 and my honorable discharge got me the best job ever. Anyhow i drove a 67 ford 2 dr.custom 500 With a nicely built 390 to work. And wasn't allowed to park near the employee entrance cause i had a foreign car. I had all the cool mopars after that but the final car i owned was a beautiful 96 Gt mustang. Buy American while you still can.
Don't get me wrong, I love the 'Cuda, and every other Mopar muscle car. But the 1971-1973 Mach 1 Mustang is one of the most beautiful cars ever built, by any manufacturer, ever. The only other cars I can say that about are the 1974-1977 Corvette, the mid '60s Jaguar XKE, and the late '70s Ferrari 308GTS. There are a lot of nice looking cars out there, but those four, and maybe a couple more I didn't think of, take styling to a whole nother level. They are so beautiful they are almost painful to look at.
@@markray4416 Yes I'm aware Dodge was given the cooler names for the same colors but oh well. Also lime light for Plymouth vs sublime for Dodge. No thanks, I'm gonna call it sublime regardless.
I cannot imagine driving a car the size of the Barracuda with a 198 or 225 6 cyl. I love the cuda though. 318 bare minimum. I cannot even remember seeing one in a junk yard with a 6 in it. It is funny how the talk about the rear seat room in the cuda. Please!!! Useless for anyone over 4' 6". I had one.
Chrysler had 3 years to design a car to compete with the mustang. Chrysler knocked it out of the park with the Cuda, compared to Ford. The 1970 cuda is the best looking Pony car, compared to Ford and Chevy.
I gotcha. But the '64 Valiant-based "Glassback" Barracuda with the 273 V-8 performed as well as the similarly-equipped Mustang, and was a much more solid handler (weird starter-motor noise and all!) Funny fact: The original Barracuda's "Bobbie Pin" front fenders looked to most eyes to be carbon-copies of the Valiant's, but were totally different and not interchangeable. By the late 1960s, while Plymouth was working overtime to differentiate the Barracuda from the Valiant, Ford was busy turning the Mustang into another overfed Torino
Bob Tepedino No gotcha needed. I currently own a 64 Valiant convert, and I know all about the early Barracuda's. Just commenting on the best looking pony-car of all time. The 70 Cuda. a 70 mustang is looks gross, a 70 Camaro is ok, but the 70 Cuda is a drop dead gorgeous knockout.
You are so right. Chrysler was THEE style leader for '70, from the Imperial to the Valiant. The 300 2-doors were particularly stunning executions, I thought.
They were wrong about coil spring suspension. Coil springs still prove to be some of the best today, even for Motocross front forks. Air forks became the rage, (lost 3 lbs with no coil spring), but people are still preferring coil springs, and kits are offered to change--back to coils. Motocross is probably the leader in suspension technology overall. When it comes to a "boat/wallowing feel", that has to do with the oil dampening. Coil springs are still the king (but not by much maybe), 41 years later. Those rear leaf springs got replaced by coils also, over time, and I doubt any car is made with leaf spring suspension today.
In writing his memoirs, Joe Oldham called the 70 Hemi Cuda Convertible a POS. And said he was impatient to get the test over with for the magazine article. According to Joe, the Hemi had no low end torque, and the quality was piss poor. He also talked about the TorqueFlite transmission leak that plagued that press test car.
Well, yeah. I'd think a 64.5 Mustang design would be kinda hard to get past safety, emissions and CAFE standards that current Mustangs get through . You either have to have some adaptation or you die off like Barracuda did . Never the less, the basic Mustang formula has remained unchanged throughout the years. (2 door, long hood, short deck)
I'm a chevy person, yet I would have taken the cuda over the stang. The stang really sufered in the 70's as it was a bigger fatter version of the maverick from 71-73, and then a clunkier version of the pinto between 74-78. Even the first "fox" stangs of 79 were junk.
Yep. I had a '69 Roadrunner with 440 six pack and it had manual (non-power) drums all the way around. But if I recall, it did have the larger 11" (?) drums up front (or front and back?). It actually stopped pretty well. The only catch is that you had one good braking session with it before the brakes would get hot and fade quickly after that. So for drag racing they were fine. Not so much for road racing, where you had to use your brakes over and over in a short period of time.
djfusion83 That Mustang is really a hardtop. The front *and* rear windows open, whereas on the Barracuda, the rear side windows on the coupe do not open, although the front windows do. The Barracuda hardtop's front and rear windows open.
Some of these were from Bunky Knudsen's brief tenure at Ford. I like the Galaxie and Mercury Montego from his time, but the rest of the lineup: yuck! He wanted the Mustang to be bigger and badder than ever before, but it lost its character as a nimble road racer. He also put that pointy Bunky Beak on the Thunderbird, and the 4 door T-Bird might have been his idea.
Crazy how that year the mustang still sold more than the cuda. Rough years for the mustang but it stayed in the race. Can't say the same about Plymouth in general. Ill take the cuda between these two for sure.
Barracuda: available bench seats, optional full-length side moldings, larger bumpers, no fastback, torsion bars Mustang: bucket seats, center armrest ("an obstruction!"), door locks at the top of the door, warning lights for temperature and alternator instead of gauges, coil springs Looking ahead 45 years at which of the above features remain in cars today, it is not too surprising that the Mustang soldiered on while the Barracuda died out. Chrysler simply did not understand what consumers really wanted or cared about ("we have better brake linings!")
