The Heavy Horsepower Page
(This is not your father's web page...)
See the Sage at Work
Get a Deeper Shade of Blue
Back to my Home Page
This page will feature some actual pictures and some historical ones of my brother and my cars. Some are pictures of "works in progress" and others of the original car. One might consider them "before and after pictures."
Except for "daily drivers," I largely confine my interest in cars to the glory days of horsepower, i.e. 1960-1970. This era includes the very last Edsels, the entire life cycle of the Corvair, a DeSoto, the glorious Studebaker Hawk, and the Chrysler turbine car (floor it, growled Huebner) with four, count 'em four major manufacturers. It's hard to think of cars more beautiful than the 60s Lincoln Continental, the original Toronado, almost all of the Ford Thunderbirds, the boattail 'Riv, or the 73 Charger SE.
I rather like Europeans cars of the same time period. This was back when men were men, Healey were Austins, Royces were regal, and MGs leaked oil all over the (bloody) tarmac. However, a big 'Caddy still was twice as expensive as a Mercedes, and size really mattered.
For Japanese cars, though I like some of their early American rip-offs, like my own "Baby Mustang" Toyota Celica GT, and their British rip-offs, like the Datsun 1600 anti-Healey, I consider their golden era to be from say 1975-1992, so they're an exception to this rule. Remember when there were 8 independent Japanese manufacturers (not owned by foreigners or badge engineered) and each put out its own sports or GT cars? Even Subura had a funky flat six sports car.
A vaguely, but culturally aware, tune
A '60 looks a lot less interesting. One might call this the "get them out the door and cut losses on the tooling" look.
****************************************
The Plymouth Barracuda
****************************************
Like the big Charger, the Barracuda grew out of a styling exercise. In the 'Cuda's case, the original started out as a variation on the compact Valiant. However, it came out about the same time as the Mustang and became its competitor. Unlike the Mustang, early on Plymouth gave the full horsepower treatment to the Barracuda.
Whereas the Mustang became, almost accidentally, a big block "sports car," Chyrsler designed its second generation Cuda, 70-73 as a performance car from the outset. This paid off in giving the 'Cuda a big engine bay able to hold everything up to and including the mighty Street Hemi.
Some enthusiasts prefer (especially Hemi-powered) the early 70 and 71 'Cuda with its aggressive row of fish teeth. My own car, the '73, featured a more subdued and arguably more beautiful single "snout." My car has a four-barrel 340 from 73, considered by many the "end of the line" though the 'Cuda limped, like a beached fish, through the 1974.
After that Plymouth, with one or two respites, became almost exclusively a seller of cheap compact cars.
This one has it's own song.