FIRST GENERATION, 1970–73
LATE TO ITS OWN PARTY
It was 1967, and the pony car market was incandescent. Chrysler was predicting the “specialty compact” segment would grow to 1.5 million sales by 1970, of which it could easily claim 200,000 or more. The company set about designing a replacement for the Plymouth Barracuda, with the caveat that Dodge would finally get its own version, an upscale model to compete against Pontiac’s new Firebird and the Mercury Cougar.
The original 1964 Plymouth Barracuda had a problem: It was based on Chrysler’s compact A-body platform, which was overwhelmed by big-block V-8s. For 1970 models, Chrysler designed a new E-body platform, using parts from the
