Whenever I look at any Mopar classic, I have trouble walking past anything built on the early 1970s E-Body platform. The company as a whole was on a winner with these cars because they looked as tough and muscular as a true muscle car is supposed to. This 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda doesn’t just look fantastic, but it has the muscle to back it. This is a spotless survivor that would look great in any driveway. The owner has decided to part with the Plymouth, so he has listed it for sale here on eBay. It is located in Covina, California, and while bidding has rocketed to $68,100, the reserve hasn’t been met.
It seems that the owner of this ‘Cuda likes his “Six-Pack” Mopars because this is not the first car that we’ve seen from him. Our own Russ Dixon covered a Challenger R/T Six-Pack that is currently on the market from the same person in this excellent article. That car is slightly more extroverted in appearance than this one, so I would recommend that you look at that article as well as a point of comparison between the two vehicles. This one is finished in Ivy Green Metallic with a Black vinyl top. It is 1-of-3,847 cars across the entire 1970 Barracuda range to wear this shade. That doesn’t make it the rarest, but the uptake of this color was line-ball with the more distinctive and recognizable In Violet/Plum Crazy. The paint on this car looks superb, with no visible scratches or chips. The panels are laser straight, while the gaps look remarkably consistent for a vehicle from this generation. The owner indicates that the ‘Cuda has been garage-kept for more than 30-years, and he doesn’t mention any rust problems. However, if it is rust-free, that would hardly be surprising for a garage-kept classic from California. All of the trim is spotless, and there are no marks on the glass.
Come on, admit it. This is what you came here for. The ‘Cuda is a numbers-matching car with its storming 440ci Six-Pack under the hood. This monster is backed by a 3-speed TorqueFlite transmission and a 4.10 Dana rear end. The Hemi-equipped ‘Cuda had more power at its disposal, but the 390hp that this car should have would be nothing to sneeze at. It is enough to have the ‘Cuda storming the ¼ mile in 14 seconds. From there, it should be able to find its way to 135mph. The seller doesn’t provide us with any information on how well the Plymouth runs or drives, but the listing indicates that the car has 42,000 on the clock. While the lack of information is frustrating, the owner does appear to be approachable, so he should be able to answer all of the questions that a serious potential buyer might want to pose.
I’ve been desperately searching for something to be critical of with the ‘Cuda, but it seems to have me beat! The Black vinyl interior is just as spotless as the rest of the vehicle, and it remains completely unmolested. There have been no aftermarket additions, and even the original AM radio remains in its rightful place. The spotless vinyl trim, the console and dash with woodgrain inserts, and the beautiful hooded Rally gauges combine to make this interior something special. It looks like the interior of a car that has just driven off the showroom floor, and this is one of the most encouraging aspects of this vehicle. It is easy to hide wear-and-tear across most aspects of a classic car, but interior trim tends to tell its own story. It is hard to hide edge wear, marks, chips, stains, and other evidence of hard work or abuse. This interior shows none of those problems, and this suggests that the Plymouth is a classic that has been treated with respect.
This 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda is quite a car, and it is no surprise to see the bidding as strong as it has been to this point. Plymouth sold 16,710 examples of the ‘Cuda Hardtop in 1970, but a mere 853 of those featured the 440 Six-Pack and TorqueFlite combination. Values on these have taken a slight hit in recent times, but the situation has stabilized over the past couple of months. That leaves the possibility that values might be about to head in the right direction again. If that does happen, buying a good one now might be a pretty sound investment. This one is a beauty that seems to need nothing, and if it is as good as the photos suggest, it is worth more than a passing glance. The only things that might hurt its value are the TorqueFlite and the paint color. Cars equipped with a 4-speed tend to command a slightly higher sale price, but the TorqueFlite does represent a more relaxed cruiser. When it comes to paint color, I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with Ivy Green. This is a color that I like, and it gives the car a tough but classy appearance. However, the market tends to gravitate toward shades like In Violet and Vitamin C Orange. Even with that thought in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the bidding romp into six-figure territory, which is about what spotless cars will command today. Do we have any readers who might be interested in pursuing this classic further?
Such a beauty! Someone is going to spend a lot of green to get this machine, and someone else will be green with envy! GLWTA!! :-)
Some of them should be here any minute, with their typical complaints.
Gorgeous car, these command high prices for a reason.
Steve R
Nothing but compliments for this car, what is not to like?
440 six barrel, torque flite and 4.10 gears, sounds like a recipe for hard acceleration to me, which can be a little abusive at times. Driven hard and driven fast, otherwise the original owner would have chose a 318. Nice looking E body in a tough shade.
It’s a piece of art. It’s just that simple.
For cars that are so rare, there seems to be a lot of these left & for sale, compared to, say the millions of mavericks & pintos sold & now almost all gone! & there’s no dynacorn cuda either – yet. Back then did people treat these A-bodies any better than the fords? & didn’t they rust just as bad as the other big 2s’ cars?
Odd i don’t think i ever seen a dynacorn chally or camaro for sale or at a car show, let alone on the road.
One of the reasons they survived is that people started searching them out sooner. Right out of high school in 1981 a friend went on a search for his dream car, a 440 six pack Cuda, it took him about a year to find one that was complete, he bought a rough matching number car for $2,300. I haven’t seen him in 35 years, but I’d be surprised if he still didn’t have it. I have several other friends that bought rare muscle cars back then and still have them, including one friend that has about a dozen first and early second generation F-body’s, mostly Z28’s or Big block Camaros along with a 69 Trans Am that he bought in the mid-80’s when you could still find matching number cars for a few thousand dollars.
When you look at cars like Mavericks they didn’t become popular until nice inexpensive Mustangs, Torino’s and Fairlanes disappeared, which was mid-2000’s around here, Northern California. I friend started buying them about that time, because he was cheap and didn’t want to spend the money on more popular models. He could still easily find nice V8 powered small bumper 2drs for under $2,000 until about 5 years ago.
Steve R
Always enjoy your input Steve. My Big Block Dodge was featured here last fall. Your comments on it helped me decide what to accept in pricing. I felt good about the sale and it went to a good home. Thank you.
The basic transportation cars, like the Maverck and Pinto and all the rest, were bought and used for the sole purpose of for a lack of a better description,,, transportation. Lots of miles within a few years, new car love turned into another new car, traded off, used car status turned into very used….recycled..
The green machine up in the pictures was obsolete in a way by the mid seventies with low lead gas replacing hi test fuel at some gas stations and the mpg’s made for an expensive journey.
But, the car itself was interesting and unique especially to gear heads and hot rodders, nowadays investors I guess. Different breed of car, that’s for sure.
Most of the BARAcudas & Challys i saw back in the day were 318s & even slant 6’s & basic transportation too. My neighbor had one & it rusted out just as fast as pintos & mavericks. Not many hi po cudas & challys were sold.
My neighbor’s car like many others were just used up, junked & later crushed – like Pintos & Mavericks.
Beautiful. Wish I had $70,000 lying around. But gonna take more than that to take this home. Pitiful description and no photos under the car. California cars still rust.
Arizona license plate…
Talk about a time machine….Mike Conners would smile at this one.
As rare as these cars are, as a huge fan of green seeing one in a color other than the loud novelty hues makes it a winner imo. Yes, these Mopars are expensive, but this one pushes all the right buttons.
GLWTS.
Those high backed buckets are most
comfortable. Same paint & interior on
my ’70 GTX 6-bbl; a 4 spd; no console.
I absolutely love this ‘Cuda!!
Just read any recollections of anyone involved with the 1970 E Body program and they will tell you they are happy the cars became considered classics but at the time were total failures. Mandated to allow factory installation of the Hemi meant a move from A body to a modified B making the cars big. Spending big dollars on different sheet metal for 2 cars that still looked similar and not even coming close to the sales figures projected made the car a big failure within Chrysler. Anyone who made decisions in the E-body program were banished to other parts of Chryslers world empire.
Actually only a loser for Plymouth. They initially chose not to support the Ebody project because they thought the Charger was sufficient for the muscle car crowd. But when Dodge started seeing sales erosion due to high performance pony cars, they joined in the Ebody program late. So the incremental cost of Challenger wasn’t bad for them. Not to refute your comment as it relates to the overall Chryco though. he Ebodies were too late to the party, and the combo of insurance rates and high gas prices did the Ebodies in.
lawd have murcee
This one brings back good memories of my ’73 Barracuda that had been repainted this color. Green vinyl top, green interior.
I wish that I had some color pictures of that car, I dug up a black and white.
What a car!someone with deep pockets will be happy with it.
I think 135 MPH might be a little optimistic for this car. It would have to spin upwards of 6500 RPM to accomplish this. These Engines were limited to around 55-56 RPM.