With a total redesign for 1970 models, the future seemed bright for the Plymouth Barracuda, and judging by some of the options a buyer could equip their new car with it’s hard to imagine just how soon afterwards doom and gloom would interfere with the muscle car market. While most of the fanfare seems to be focused on the ‘Cuda offerings nowadays, Plymouth didn’t neglect their buyers who were looking for a sleek luxury cruiser either, and that’s where the Gran Coupe comes into play. This 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Gran Coupe here on eBay needs some work, but if you’ve got good wrenching skills it certainly seems worthy of consideration. The car is located in Arlington, Virginia, with the opening bid of $30,000 yet to be placed.
The seller doesn’t provide an overwhelming amount of details about the Barracuda, but what he does tell us combined with the photos seems to paint a fairly good picture of what you’re getting here. One specific we are told is that he’s only the car’s second owner and it hasn’t been driven in the past 23 years, but storage conditions were favorable as the Plymouth has been housed inside a garage all this time. There’s no word on whether or not the body has ever had any work done on it or how old that finish is, but from what I can see in the pictures the panels appear to be solid and the paint seems nice and shiny, so it’s quite possible if the next owner is just looking for a nice driver this one’s good enough on the outside just like it sits.
Plymouth offered several of good choices under the hood for their Gran Coupe in ’70, including the Slant-6, a V8 in the form of 318 cubic inches, or the big block 383 with either a 2 or 4-Barrel carburetor. This one’s got the middle-of-the-road 318, perhaps not quite as desirable as the larger offering but still a decent performer for most Gran Coupe drivers. The seller says the car was operational when he parked it, including the A/C, but for undisclosed reasons, it’s not presently running.
Not much information is provided regarding the interior, but if it’s original the well-preserved condition seems to back up the car’s claimed mileage of 24,000. One obvious aftermarket item is the post-seventies Stereo which includes a CD player, but it would be quick and easy to put a factory-style radio back in if the next owner wants. There aren’t any shots of the car up on a lift but we do get a few snippets of the underside, and the components in view all seem to be reasonably solid. Even if the motor and transmission both could use rebuilding, with the rest of the car’s condition this one seems like it’s not that far away from being road worthy again and I’m guessing before the auction ends there’s gonna be several buyers competing to own this 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Gran Coupe. What do you think?
Very nice! Appears to be well taken care of though why it isn’t running could be a big question for what the seller is asking. Nice that it survived the “Let’s make it a ‘Cuda!!” craze.
Not running because it has the garbage 318 motor in it !!!!!! Thats the worst , no balls v8 motor ever made !!!!!!!!
I guess you’re entitled to your wrong opinion. The 318 was far from the worst motor ever made, it wasn’t intended to be a ballsy motor it was intended for commuter cars and light duty trucks and it served those duties well.
The Pontiac 301 should be #1 for junk- Nobody, not even a die hard Ford or Chevy fan would call a 318 a garbage motor
Actually the worst V8 award goes to Chevys 307. I owned a 70 barracuda was a 318, 340,000 miles. Ran when I sold it in 1992
I ordered a new ’72 Camaro with a 307 due to the insanely rising insurance premiums on my GTO (what a big mistake!). That engine was gutless and presented with severely worn camshaft lobes and hogged out “valve guides” at about 19,000 miles despite dealership oil & filter changes every 2,500 miles. Chevrolet later admitted to a batch of “soft” camshafts and reimbursed me for that repair. (it had a 12 month/12,000-mile factory warranty) Traded it for a Formula 400 Firebird and sucked up the additional insurance costs … wise decision!
The Grand Coupe came with a vinyl top and overhead console. Most of them had fancy wheel covers. Now the paint color supposed to be EB 7(fender tag )Jamaica blue metallic.Thats not the color we see here. If you look in the engine compartment you will see it. It’s a lighter color. As for the mileage need to put a one in front of the two. This can be brought back to the GC set up. But I have to wonder if there Bondo under that paint. Buyer beware… 🐻🇺🇸
FWIW I had bid early and then retracted my bid for these reasons. I’m nowhere near this car and have been bitten by the ‘not pictured’ gotcha.
Overhead console yes, vinyl roof no. One quick look at the inner fender tag will tell you this Grande Coup did not come with a vinyl roof.
There’s more story to this car than being told. The inner fender shields have been removed for whatever reason. The torsion bars have been painted silver (should be black) begs the question, why were they removed ? The brake booster & master cylinder were replaced and an aftermarket adjustable brake proportioning valve was installed, why ? Brake issues ?
Trim: Lower chrome strip missing from the grill, lower valance insert missing, LH rear quarter window chrome missing, 71 dark style center caps on car.
If you were to look at the engine bay it could be arguable for the 24k mileage stated as that’s a lot of oil leaking going on for such low mileage. But if you look at the interior, perfect dash pad, steering wheel & faux wood grain is almost perfect with no wear. Seats, dash pad and dash finish bezels all do look like from a low mileage car.
Just get on the phone and ask some questions as you should, for this kind of $$$.
Stinger.. I didn’t catch that about the top. ThanksEvery GC I seen had a vinyl top. This ride has been abused. 🐻
Not all had vinyl tops (I have a Gran Coupe for the last 35 years, second owner a TX9 with no vinyl). As long as it has the Gran Coupe unique interior including the overhead console, fake wood panel inserts and the rear panels with ash trays built in and the unique rocker panel covers (which I DON’T see here) this one seems pretty solid. Yeah, I would want to do a good check along the bottom for rust but I don’t see anything here that would turn me off.
I agree with Big 🐻 Bear, due to overspray on hood springs and blower motor.
Bad engine. Needs work and I can’t believe the mileage. I am looking for a Cuda sorry not this.
Nice, but not at $30k, especially if it has been sitting 2 decades plus
This is a low-optioned Gran Coupe. They often come with luxury options like power windows, AM/FM, etc. Also, the louvered rocker panel between the wheels is missing.
Thought they had the samall rear window too?
The only model that came with the smaller rear window was the Challenger SE, I do believe.
Ebay ad shows the window sticker, it states 318 with 3speed manual trans, looks like a automatic to me but I might be wrong. How can someone let the engine compartment look like that, the interior and exterior are really nice but that engine and compartment DON’T say 24k miles maybe 124k.
The part that reads the standard transmission is just in reference as to what is “standard” option with the BP23 option code. Reading further down you will see the window sticker they added D34 option for Torqueflight Automatic Transmission. The inner fender tag transmission code is also for an Automatic. Hope that clears it up.
With all of the great paint choices available in ’70, I would have chosen a stock color to repaint it. This color just looks wrong to me.
If it were mine, I would just repaint it back to the stock color.