Do you remember a woman named Marlene Marcos who owned an unbelieveable amount of shoes? Well, I am like that when it comes to vehicles and motorcycles.
During the restoration of my 72 Dodge Challenger, I got a call from my uncle asking me if I could visit with him in Pennsylvania. The man who I purchased the 72 Challenger from, John Borgan, met my uncle and me for lunch and told me that a guy he knew outside of Pittsburgh was selling his Mopar collection and that I should check this out.
Upon arrival, this eleborate colonial style six-car garage revealed all the Mopars this guy wanted to liquidate. This guy had a number of 440 1970 drop-top Challengers, 1967 and 1968 Dodge Chargers, a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner and hidden in the corner, was a Hemi Orange drop-top 1970 Plymouth Barracuda.
At first, I was interested in the 1970 Challenger Convertible, but when I saw the Barracuda my mind was set to purchase the car.
Again, the Cuda was transferred to Texas. The body and the upholstery were in very good condition and so was the drivetrain.
I started with with general maintenance on the car once it arrived to include wash (detailing), oil change and a general tuneup but the car just didn’t run right.
At the time, money and time was being devoted to completing my 72 Dodge Challenger. So the Cuda was safely tucked away in my garage for a while.
So I decided to cruise the Cuda over to Paul Gaspard’s house to get his feedback and build an upgrade plan. He immediately brought to my attention that the Edelbrock carburetor was too big for my 230 horse 340 engine. So we went to Oreilly’s Auto Parts and purchased the correct 650 CFM Edelbrock Carburetor making the engine running so much better. We then did a compression check on the engine only to find that the number 2 cylinder was completely out of spec. After further discussion, we decided to replace the original stock cylinder heads with a set of Edelbrock Aluminum RPM cylinder heads. We also replaced the stock steel intake manifold with an up-to-date Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake manifold. The original stock ignition distributor was also replaced with an up-to-date MSD electronic ignition with matching spark plug wires and correct spark plugs. The improvement in efficiency along with the 42 lbs of weight savings helped tremendously on the performance of the 340 improving horsepower from 230 to about 300 horsepower.
After some tinkering, I got the convertible top to operate correctly. I upgraded the tires and wheels and put the car out on the road. The 70 Barracuda now purrs like a kitten traveling down the road.
My eventual plan for the Cuda is to replace the original Torqueflite 727 with a 5-speed pistol grip manual transmission. The rearend will be replaced with a new 8.75 inch differential with 2.76 gears so I can effortlessly go on long-haul cruises with all my friends. My goal is to be able to take part in the 2026 Route 66 Hundredth Year Celebration.