Was the Plymouth barracuda the fastest muscle car of it's time?

Was the Plymouth barracuda when equipped with the 7 litre Hemi engine with 425 horsepower the fastest muscle car of it's time did it compete internally within Chrysler with the dodge challenger and dodge charger and If Plymouth had a rich history why was it shut down by Chrysler?

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Reply 1

JC.

Define "fastest"?

If we're talking about top speed, surely that crown goes to two other MOPAR products; Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona.

Plymouth was just another brand in the mopar hiarachy. The Plymouth's were always the basic no-frills brand firmly at the bottom. It basically went Plymouth - Dodge - Chrysler - De Soto* / Imperial*.
*depending on year.
They did OK on certain products... the Duster always outsold the Demon, for example. Ultimately the powers that be decided there were too many brands and decided to rationalise and cut costs.

On the subject of the 200+mph B bodies, the only reason there was even a Plymouth version was Richard Petty refused to race for mother mopar unless he could do so behind the wheel of a Plymouth. He wasn't interested in driving the Daytona that'd already set the benchmark.

The other thing to think about is whilst the 426 Hemi is a fantastic engine, it really isn't suitable to put in the E body platformed 'cuda's and challengers. It's just far too heavy. A 383 or 440 big block makes a better balanced car, if not a little slower. The Hemi was a failed aero engine it was never intended to end up in a car.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

Alfissti

Original post by hsv

If Plymouth had a rich history why was it shut down by Chrysler?

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Because towards the end products that came off their lines were mostly badge engineered junks. Just like British Leyland.

Reply 3

JC.

Original post by Alfissti

Because towards the end products that came off their lines were mostly badge engineered junks. Just like British Leyland.

Plymouth weren't anything remotely similar to BL. They were launched as a budget brand by Chrysler.

When they shut up shop they had the prowler which was absorbed into Chrysler and the PT Cruiser was supposed to be launched as a Plymouth. Plymouth was about to get a shed load of unique models. That all got canned when they merged with Daimler Benz.