Everybody wants to get a rig into Car Craft, right? Well if you're in the right place at the right time--and your ride is cool--you've got a pretty good chance of making the cut. But other cars get in not because of what they are, but rather what they were. We stumbled onto this crispy critter at Desert Valley Auto Parts recently (dvap.com; 800/905-8024) and were struck by its folksy charm. No doubt this '65 Barracuda was somebody's pride and joy a long time ago. Resplendent in a snazzy red, white, and blue graphics treatment, this mullet machine must have been a real eye-catcher in its prime. Well, years have passed and we can only guess why its owner has abandoned it to a murky junkyard fate. Jail perhaps? Let's dive in for a closer look.
The fender tag shows paint code PP1, telling us this fish has always worn Ruby Red paint. The sun-chalked white-and-blue graphics add a patriotic touch and look like they were brushed over the existing red paint back around 1976 for the bicentennial. The VIN starts with the letters V8, so we know it was born a 273 car. Better yet, there's a four-speed pedal unit in the shag carpet-infested interior. Sadly, the special floor hump has been scavenged.
Does anybody remember Eddie Money? Could his 1983 hit song "Shakin" have contributed to this hand-applied flourish above the rear skins? We love tacky slogans, especially on tacky cars.
"My fish was shakin', snappin' the wheel studs..." Dig the supercreepy stacks of flat washers on the studs doubling as wheel spacers. Great stuff!
Got sagging leaf springs? Don't replace them when you can weasel a set of coils between the axle and frame. The big bolt pattern (5-on-4 1/2) and excess width tell us the 8 3/4 rear axle was swapped in from a B-Body. Yep, those are traces of baby blue on the housing and brake drums. Ch-ch-cheesy! We love it and we hate it at the same time.
Groovy Factoids
* There were 64,596 Barracudas built in 1965 versus 559,451 Mustangs.
* Eddie Money's real name is Eddie Mahoney. He was in training to be a NYC cop before hitting the big time as a Top 40 rocker in 1977. Eddie still performs live about 60 times a year. Check him out at eddiemoney.com.
* Art Director Edwin Alpanian actually played a gig with Eddie Money in October 1997 at The Hollywood Bike Jam festival.