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1966-1984 - Introduction

It was November 1966 and my Grandfather was in the market for a new car, his Valiant Signet was recently wrecked. His first stop was Guy Moothart Chrysler Plymouth on Long Beach Boulevard in Compton California. After looking around the lot at all the new '67 models he wasn't impressed, he didn't like the Valiant's, the Belvedere's were too big and the Fury's were out of the question. They still had '66 Barracuda's on the lot and the 67's were not out yet, he did look at them, just didn't see one that he liked, so off he went. Before he could leave a salesman stopped him and informed him that the All New '67 Barracudas would be in tomorrow. The next day my Grandparents showed up at the dealer and spotted a Copper Fastback sitting in the porte-cochere, without hesitation they selected that car. He did ask about more power but when he found out that the 383 would mean no power steering he said forget it, the salesman failed to mention the Commando 273. So the deal was in motion, Redline tires were added to the car before they signed the deal and they returned to have the rocker mouldings added.

As a kid I have fond memories of the car and the trips that were taken with my Grandparents. On one outing we were simply going to the hardware store to buy corrugated fiberglass sheets to put on the patio cover. On the way out to the car the employee that was helping us asked where our truck was, my Grandfather proceeded to point to the Barracuda. The employee asked if we needed rope to tie the panels to the roof, without hesitation my Grandfather said "no we are going to put them in the trunk" with all seriousness and opened the trunk. The bewildered employee help slide the 10' sheets into the trunk.

Over the years the car served as his daily driver taking him to and from work, about a 10 mile round trip. He kept it garaged when not in use but there was little he could do to protect it against the San Gabriel Valley sun while he was at work. In 1985 he decided that the car was too old and didn't want to worry about driving an old car that may need work. He first went to Plymouth and couldn't believe they didn't have a sport coupe, same with Dodge, so off to Chevy. After looking at the Camaro's he felt that they were too hard to get into and overall not impressed. Back to Dodge, this time he was looking at trucks, didn't want a full-size so he decided the Ram D50 would do, 4WD stripped.

That is when I got the call to get the car; the dealer didn't offer him enough to make it worth trading in. I had already had my eyes on the Barracuda and knew that he might trade it in, just hoped it didn't happen.

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