1969 'cuda 383 4-speed

as to the odd "traction bars" on the 67 barracuda, i cannot believe these were stock. when the big block/high torque "pony" muscle cars (barracuda, mustang, camaro) first started appearing around 1967, a number of them - primarily mustangs and camaros - had severe "wheel hop" issues when excess rpm's/loss of traction occurred. after market vendors quickly engineered and marketed "traction bars" for these cars. there were two basic designs that were popular but some of these traction bars looked very similar to the ones on this 67 barracuda, although the other popular design (popular on camaros) had the bar bolted to the rear axle with a rubber "pinion snubber type) impact pad on the front of the bar (towards the front of the car). when you would get leaf spring "wrap up" causing the wheel to begin to vibrate, these bars would hold the spring in place and not allow the portion of the spring in front of the axle to flex.

no auto company offered "factory installed" or even "dealer installed" OEM traction bars for any muscle car manufactured between 1964 and 1971 that i know of or ever heard of. naturally, you could buy these bars "over the counter" from the parts department of dealerships but these were not factory produced items - they were after market parts. my view of any such bars on old muscle cars which "appear" to be "factory" is that these bars were purchased from the parts departments and dealer installed after the car was bought. if these traction bars were installed shorty after the car arrived at the dealership, they would look "factory" now because they would have aged consistently with the rest of the car.

i remain convinced - no such bars pictured were installed originally on any muscle car by any car company at any time.