1969 'cuda 383 4-speed

cuda dad...
saw your car on graveyard carz the other night. it was a pretty good segment with lots of air time for your car. mark seemed to be a little surprised at the fenderwell headers holes in the fender wells. i don't know why .... the guy that bought my original 68 barracuda s new cut out the fenderwells and installed hooker fenderwell headers. fenderwell headers on 340s were good for somewhere around 30-50 hp which translated to maybe a half a second on 1/4 mile times. lots of guys hacked out their fender wells on a body cars in the late 60s early 70s. fenderwell headers were also good for "bragging rights" on these cars on the street. i painted my headers bright orange so you could see them on the car coming down the road. this kinda said to other car guys, "yea, go ahead and challenge me to a race..."

both my current cudas have intack fenderwells and i would never consider cutting them out because original cars are just too valuable now. my 68 is exactly like my first 68 except for the fenderwell headers. however, i may look for another fastback 68 with the fenderwells already cut out and build another car that IS exactly like the one i had in high school.

since you are spending a lot of money to get your car restored, i'm sure you're going to have Mark replace your fender wells with original ones. but if i were you, i wouldn't take any "guff" off of anyone who makes a comment about your car the way it is. your car is EXACTLY the way these cars were built "back in the day."

best of luck with the build - i'll keep watching for when they start "blowing apart" your car.