Mopar Muscle Association UK

Well, as a good corporate citizen, I thought it was about time to put a few words together, and hopefully a couple of interesting pictures about my ’69 Barracuda.

Before I met “Blue”, I was happy, more wealthy, heavily into “E” bodies and polishing.

Unfortunately I made the grave error of needing a bigger radiator for my ’71 440 six pack Barracuda ‘vert; and made matters worse by responding to one of Blue’s advertisements.

At this point the rot set in, and I was encouraged to run the car at Santa Pod (against the famed “Brisbane Taxi” no less) and my problems just multiplied.

The problem was (as all hardened racers will know) is that while I did beat the taxi (big blocks rule!!!), whilst coming off the start line you could actually feel the car “wind up” and twist along its axis. Clearly this vehicle would not last very long, afford me much protection; and was not the right tool for the job.
Rule 1: “Don’t take a knife to a gunfight”.

There was only one answer. The car had to go. Go it did, back to the ‘States as has been the way with many a nice car..........

But what to replace it with?
More counsel from Blue indicated that the smallest possible package with the biggest motor was the order of the day.
Rule 2: “Less weight is free horsepower”.

Fortunately, or so it seemed at the time, that smashing Mr Nick Osgathorpe – he of “Excalibur" nostalgia blown Hemi rail fame – had a lovely little unmolested 1969 Plymouth (right make!!) Barracuda Fastback (right body style!!) for sale.

Unmolested meant: 318 v8, 904 auto transmission, power steering, power drum brakes, weedy prop shaft, even more weedy 7 ¼” (now known as a seven-and-a-slaughter for obvious reasons) rear axle, 14” wheels, and air conditioning.
In other words, TOTALLY wrong for its intended application – other than the important fact that it was a virtually rust free body.

I eagerly paid over the very reasonable amount to Mr.Osgathorpe and off I went; safe in the knowledge that Tony Oksien would never talk to me again if I cut up such a straight and honest numbers matching car.

That would not present a problem – I’d get Blue to cut it up!!!

When I got the car, I had a clear vision on how it would turn out.
THere now follows another classic example of how hind sight would have been such a wonderful and money-saving thing!

It would DEFINITELY be a small block, who needs a heavy old big block?
It would DEFINITELY have a 4 speed transmission, boy! That would be fun!
It would DEFINITELY have an 8 ¾” rear axle with a Suregrip, High gears (later known as “non-gay” gears).
It HAD to be on super stock springs to have that old time traditional look.
It would have to be manual steering.
It would need further lightening.
It would need further strengthening – even a roll cage – how cool, is this allowed on the street?
It would be a street-driven bruiser that could cut it at the track – it had to run 12’s.

The reason I am writing this down, is so at the end of this sorry tale of poor project management you can see how many “must haves” have indeed remained......

I have to say at the outset, that I am totally indebted to Blue for much of the original build.

I was also fortunate at the time of buying the car from Nick to acquire lots of goodies from him that were intended for a ’74 Dart project that got subsequently canned.

With the car came - YES!!! A NEW 8 3/4” Centre section with 4.10:1 gears (very heterosexual!) and a Sure-Grip! Also I scored some drag shocks, a MANUAL Steering setup, an MSD6AL, coil, “A” body super stock rear springs, and various other bits and bobs; a very good start.

I was lucky that Blue was in a position to keep the car at his infamously cold workshop and he agreed to start with the bulk of the fabrication and heavy engineering; which was nice.

OUT went the power steering , the 318, the A904, the air conditioning, the front fenders, the hood, the front bench seat, armrests, the radiator, the heater matrix, the blower fan, and other odds and sods. The result was: a shell.

I had no power plant, no gearbox, no prop, no rear axle, no front end panels.....

My great mate Alex Doig of “AM Autosports” suggested a crate 360 as a starting point, so I started looking around – we could always bolt a pro-charger on later!!!

At the time of the build, I was fortunate to have purchased a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird 440 six pack car from the ‘States. And we know what that means?? Yep; a big container that you can fill up with bits!

This meant the old credit card could now work overtime, and I ordered a new 360ci small block short motor from Mopar Performance, some Edelbrock-indy heads from Summit racing, together with a roll cage kit.

Andy Neal was an absolute diamond chap and from his place in upstate New York, he co-ordinated all the parts (and the Superbird) and marshalled all the parts; what a guy!

The Superbird needed an engine refurbishment, so Andy took the #’s matching motor to Ray Barton’s in Pennsylvania for a complete re-build.

In addition, he took the small blocks’ alloy heads and Ray Barton personally ported them. My only claim to fame.

I bought a few more parts form Andy, such as a original fuel tank with a sump added out of “Tweety”, and more parts from Mancini’s and Summit, such as an aluminium radiator.

When the car and the shipment turned up at Blightly, Alex and I catalogued all the parts that came in that container.
I think Andy had agreed to do a few favours for other people as well, as I am sure I never ordered a set of small block Chevy heads.

It took Alex and I six hours to record all the bits and pieces. Happy days, I am so glad that all the parts were registered with H.M. Customs......

This is 'proper' Pete. C'mon add more!!

Patience, young Skywalker; I have detailed files....and pictures.........

nice thread pete, fill us in with more of the story, im glad you bought the car off nick and all the parts he had colected as the 74 dart project is now in my garage

cant wait for this one mate .......................

From time to time, Blue would call me up and say "I have been offered such and such parts; I think they would work on the Barracuda". I would usually answer "yes" in total ignorance, or come up with a more complex way of achieving the same outcome..

Here is the first stage of the build, I will detail the components used and the chassis mods and the like in due course:

The car certainly made it down to the "Ace" cafe looking like this - after a trip to Matt Snowball's for a spot of wheel alignment (Cheers Matt ).

I seem also to remember that it made it to the Nats in this form as well with no paint job to speak of - Blue; did you drive it there looking like this? It would have been the 2003 EuroNats......

good story Pete ....................

Good write up Pete Long time coming

Must say tho, I like the 'original' (to you) paint scheme

This is a great read! Cant wait for more pics

The original set up for the car was as follows:
Fibre glass front fenders and hood with hemi hood scoop from Dale Edmonds (a long time ex-work colleague) aka DRE. These were taken from the original moulds that were derived from Andy Neal’s “Tweety” Barracuda, which now resides in Salt Point, NY, USA. The “12 second” cage was a 6 point item from Summit racing, but modified to allow the use of the classic Barracuda fastback fold down rear seats.

Blue installed the roll cage with assistance from Gary (he of immaculate Chevy Nova fame) who crafted new rear tubes to allow the use of the rear seats, and did all the great TIG welding on the cage.

At the time the car was more “road” than “race” as I had not sunk to my current depths of depravity and compromise. My kids were still young and I retained the rear seat and belts so they could accompany me. Have you any idea how heavy that fold down seat is?? Boy, retaining that was a mistake. We live and learn….

Other clever and desirable modifications were:
Chassis connectors – don’t leave home without them,…
In-boarding the super stock springs, this was a key modification.
Blue has developed his own method of achieving this, and it involves the fabrication of a new front “hanger” that is an extension of the Chassis rail on both sides. The rear shackles were in-boarded to match, but this approach set the tone for the future development of the car. It allowed the maximum amount of rear tyre without recourse to “back-halving” the car, whereby the rear frame rails are cut out and a “pinched in” sub frame is installed together with a coil over arrangement and either ladder bars or more commonly a four link set-up.

Whilst this would give the capacity for mucho tyre width, I did not want to change the car from the essence of the old “super stock” days when Dick Landy and other notable characters dominated the drag strips. To my mind, back-halving the car was the line that I was not prepared to cross. The car had to remain in rear springs, whilst maximising the “tyre size” opportunities. I realise now that this will ultimately limit the performance of the car regarding traction, but there you go; my mind was made up.

Blue somewhat miraculously (as ever) managed to acquire some “Weld Drag lite” wheels and tyre which looked suitably impressive to my untutored eyes. This dictated the width of the rear axle. Yes, I know that’s the wrong way around but there is an element of pragmatism and practicality when building a car and “2 welds in the hand was worth more than an 8 ¾” axle casing in the bush” so to speak.

The later fell into place when I bought a “C” body axle banjo from that charming Mr Billadeau at the Nats one year. It was subsequently dispatched to Hauser Racing (who now part-own my house) for the obligatory narrowing and bracing and the installation of Moser performance axles, and green bearings (basically Ford roller bearings) and sexy 3” lug nuts.

It only needed about 5 minutes liberal application of smelling salts to bring me around after receipt of the bill, but it was well worth it – as I hope Ivor can agree! (All will be revealed later).

Still the Hoosier Quick time tyres (325 x 50 x 15) took my mind off the other expense – these also tuned up in the afore-mentioned big ‘bird box courtesy of Summit racing and Andy Neal logistics company! They have proved to be excellent tyres from a road perspective, OK on the strip (no match for full slicks) but to have porous sidewalls, thus needing inner tubes to prevent slow deflation.

This was all married to the 360 ci small block built by Alex Doig, a 750cfm double pumper Holley Carb, a Holley Blue pump and basic regulator.

A 4 speed 833 Gearbox from a Dodge GTS Dart (or so I am told) was acquired by Blue, aided by a genuine Hurst shifter with over-travel bolts.

Next a prop shaft was expensively made up by “Reco-prop” in Luton with a 1330 front slip yoke joint and a 7290 (known as “large”) rear UJ to marry up with the 489 carrier.

In addition a steel SFI approved bell housing was bagged, together with a strengthened Clutch pivot and arm, and rose jointed linkages for the clutch operation. Much effort was put in to this part of the build, but as described later it proved to be the Achilles heel of the car….. but how would the car perform on the street and the track?

A cool thread and a funny read as well

Not enough pictures.