Despite its all-new design in 1970, the Plymouth Barracuda was still no match for the Ford Mustang in sales. Even though ’70 was Barracuda’s best sales year, the Mustang outsold it by nearly 4 to 1. The Gran Coupe was the luxury edition of the car and was its slowest seller, so this garage find from ’71 is a rare car to see these days. After hiding indoors for nearly 30 years, it’s seeing the light of day for the first time in ages and looking for a new home. Located in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, this Mopar is original except for the engine and radio and is available here on eBay. $25,900 is the current bid on an unmet reserve.
If you wanted bells and whistles over performance, the Gran Coupe was the Barracuda to order in 1971. It had a higher level of trim and could easily be identified from a 1970 or 1972-74 model as ‘71 was the only year the car used quad headlights. Out of 16,492 Barracudas assembled in 1971, only 1,020 were Gran Coupes with the 318 cubic inch V8 and a TorqueFlite automatic. And a handful of buyers went with a 383, but the 440 and Hemi were nowhere in sight. After all, it was a “luxury” car”.
This automobile has an interesting history. The seller bought it in 1985 in Arizona during college and became its third owner. While crossing a range of mountains in the West, the original 318 gave out and had to be replaced by a rebuilt 360 that was made in the ‘80s. In 1993, he moved east to Pennsylvania and drove the car for about a year until he bought something more “winter friendly” and the Plymouth went into storage for three decades. It served as a storage shelf for much of that time.
Not one but two videos provided by the lister (not the seller) show a mostly rust-free car. That would not have been the case had it continued to be exposed to the winter roads of the Northeast. There are a couple of small places in the sheet metal where the rust is trying to work through, but they should be easily repaired during a restoration.
The mechanical health of Plymouth isn’t mentioned, and the car hasn’t likely been started in some time (no battery). This vehicle has loads of Gran Coupe options, like an upgraded interior with an overhead console and power windows. But the interior is showing its age in terms of deteriorated upholstery, faded carpeting, and a drooping headliner. One can only hope this car will be restored in its current form, even with the replacement motor, rather than becoming a ‘Cuda clone with a hot powerplant.
Yes-clean it up, crank it up and drive it as the unique cruiser it is. Everyone has their own vision of a ride like this but too many are just duplications of someone else’s car.
Kudos to the last owner for taking care of it-it’s one of the cleaner NE car we’ve seen here IIRC.
That is a very rare car. That is the first one with a Holley, and that air filter that doesn’t have the paint burnt off the hood.
Back in the 80s, I had a friend in Ohio who had a ‘71 Gran Coupe with a 383 and factory 4-speed. It had leather seats, the overhead console, and a vinyl top with a smaller rear window than a standard barracuda. It was in decent, but not great shape. I remember the clutch pedal being very stiff, with a long travel that made it hard to drive the car smoothly. It must have been very rare with those options.
The smaller back window would’ve been a Challenger SE, they never did a small window Barracuda.
Back in 1980, well maybe 81. We bought a 71 barracuda convertible for 25 bucks. 318 auto leather seats power windows power top. The interior was about as nice as it could be, carpets looked new, dash pad shined like a new penny and that car was so rusty it was unbelievable. I could stick my head thru the holes in the front fenders. The nice carpet sagged because there was no metal underneath it. We stuck a battery in it to check things out and the only thing that didn’t work was the driver rear back window. We got it running and discovered the block was cracked as the water just poured out of it, the soft plugs could have rusted it away, I just assumed the block froze up and busted. We did drive it around some till it overheated and we couldn’t get the doors open anymore. Pulled the seats and the K member and junked the rest. The reason for telling this story is I believe that car was a gran coupe convertible with the leather seats
That $25 dollar rust bucket might be $25 thousand now. Crazy prices now
I was thinking,,,,I WOULD love to see original bill of sale on this~~ $3,000 ???
When I think about how much that stuff is worth now I can only chuckle a little, who knew? Want to hear another good one about having no idea what things could be worth? My brother traded a 70 challenger shaker hood with the bubble and air cleaner base for a flat hood for his challenger. He only gave 10 bucks for the shaker but had to go get the hood out of a ditch. A 440 six pack car was used for parts to fix a 70 RT that had ran into some small trees. The guys took the fenders and doors off it and then got to playing with a dozer and ran up onto the 6 pack car. I ended up with both cars in the late 80’s and the 6 pack car still had no rust. I ended up traded what was left of it for some parts that I needed for the RT. The story I got was that the 6 pack car was stolen sometime in 72 and motor and tranny were taken out and body dumped on side of road
I wonder what they want for the ski carrier in the first picture.
I was watching the local news one night and heavy rain caused major flooding.
A reporter was on the scene where some homes were close to high water.
Yet in a neighboring backyard, away from the problem, was a Plum Crazy Cuda!
Hello!
NO way is worth no more than 8,000.maybe less
Bidders have proven you wrong, this isn’t the 90s anymore and it’s worth whatever the highest bidder bids. Pretty sure if it were yours you’d be trying to get whatever top dollar too, one would be a fool not too.
Is the engine sitting ,,,,crooked ? or my imagination~~??
Looks as if Driver side is high,, in comparison to passengers~
Is it me or is there two fuel fill tubes in the trunk one at the plate and another in the right wheel well?
I believe,,,if my memory is correct,, the tube in trunk was vent lines for the fuel system ~~ The beginning steps of retrieving fuel vapors~~
Went for $28,600 on ebay…..nice score