The Machine

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:14 pm

Stu wrote:I was under the impression that the Barracuda was fastracked purely to beat the Mustang out of the blocks.

Well Chrysler had a fastback Valiant idea that had been sitting on the shelf at Plymouth for some time.

Ford was the one fast tracking the Mustang. Usually in those days a new car took about 3-4 years of development. Ford gave their designers just 18 months to re-body the Falcon chassis and come up with the new Mustang.

News spread through the industry about this "mad rush" and Chrysler saw an opportunity to do a faster job and beat them to it. The problem was they should have made the car look different to the Valiant and they should have given it a V8 as standard. If they had done that things may have been a lot different for Chrysler in the mid 60s.

Chrysler offered the Fastback idea to Dodge too. But they wanted to push the B-body platform as their customers liked the bigger cars. So they put a fastback on the design they were working on for the 1966 Coronet and called it "Charger".

latil · Post by **latil** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:18 pm

In release order,1 Barracuda 1/4/64
2 Mustang 17/4/ 64 (production started 9/3/64)
3 Rambler/AMC Marlin 10/2/65

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:19 pm

Chrysler offered the Fastback idea to Dodge too. But they wanted to push the B-body platform as their customers liked the bigger cars. So they put a fastback on the design they were working on for the 1966 Coronet and called it "Charger".

Fools. Anyone can see that was never going to get anywhere.

You have to admit, the Ford boys did a fair old job on that "quick design"

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:26 pm

Stu wrote:You have to admit, the Ford boys did a fair old job on that "quick design"

Yep. Because they were allowed the artistic and financial freedom to be creative.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:34 pm

Plymouth designers came up with this "Super Sport fastback" in 1959 and were actually going to release this car in 1962 before Chrysler slammed the brakes on it.

Compare that roofline with the first Barracuda.

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:36 pm

In '59 I reckon that would have looked awesome. Not my kipper tie, but reckon it would have caused a sensation.

Trigger_Andy · Post by **Trigger_Andy** » Mon Jun 21, 10 4:48 pm

I like the Hood Scoop\Rev Counter combo.

I would also be very happy to swan around in the Machine. There's some picky buggers on here!

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Mon Jun 21, 10 5:11 pm

Trigger_Andy wrote:I like the Hood Scoop\Rev Counter combo.

I would also be very happy to swan around in the Machine. There's some picky buggers on here!

i too like the hoodscoop/tach its really in your face,when you see one on the road they seem to stand out but really look very big and muscley ,yea you should hear what the yanks say about AMC,S, till they get there doors blown off by one and they are really Bananarama!

,they used the same block for the 290,343,360,390, and in 70 they came out with a 401,so the initial block weight is less than the other 3 car makers larger cube motors

he even found a die cast and took it apart and painted it to match

yea some dont like it but if we all liked the same thing that would sure suck wouldnt it?,we would all be driving challengers

drewcrane · Post by **drewcrane** » Mon Jun 21, 10 10:55 pm

face only a mother could love

TYREMAN · Post by **TYREMAN** » Mon Jun 21, 10 11:37 pm

Trigger_Andy wrote:I like the Hood Scoop\Rev Counter combo.

I would also be very happy to swan around in the Machine. There's some picky buggers on here!

Here here! me also cut the guy some slack its nice to see something diffrent

Love the AMCs and love the little Hornet SC360 and the later Gremlins.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Tue Jun 22, 10 8:34 am

drewcrane wrote:face only a mother could love

Yep. That is pretty damn ugly too.

Cannonball · Post by **Cannonball** » Tue Jun 22, 10 11:52 am

the little blue amx in the back ground looks so sweet,

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Tue Jun 22, 10 1:17 pm

Dave wrote:Plymouth designers came up with this "Super Sport fastback" in 1959 and were actually going to release this car in 1962 before Chrysler slammed the brakes on it.

Compare that roofline with the first Barracuda.

and it's got the same front & rear quarter 'bulges' as the soon-to-come 62 Plymouth...

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Jun 22, 10 1:49 pm

And look how successful that was.

Tim P · Post by **Tim P** » Sun Oct 03, 10 9:32 am

AMC weren't afraid to try something a bit different:

Here's an 1982 Eagle 4x4 Coupe. 25 years before BMW's weird X6.

http://www.gessweinmotors.com/classic.aspx

and a couple of Barcelona coupe's. Which I hadn't heard of either.