Interesting Article, MOPAR'S first shot at Cuda

Barracuda may have beat Mustang to market by a scant 6 weeks, however Barracuda did not sell as well as the Mustang in the beginning. Problem was the stodgy styling, and only one body style. Basically a fastback roof grafted onto a Valiant economy car. The Valiant Barracuda moniker didnt help things either, although by 66 the Valiant hyphen was dropped along with the Valiant logo from the Barracuda to try to seperate the Barracuda from Valiant.

Sure the Mustang was built off the Falcon like Barracuda came from the Valiant. However the Mustang shared no exterior sheetmetal or interior upholstery with the lowly Falcon. This made the Mustang unique for its time. A sporty 2+2 coupe, convertible, or fastback, along with a myrad of options to make it your own unique car. This translated into sales, sales, sales. By mid year 1966 Ford Mustang hit the 1 million built mark.

That is why GM came out with the Camaro and Firebird in 1967. They couldent sit on the sidelines anymore and let Ford keep this market to themselves. With the Barracuda, this single fastback style and economy car Valiant sheetmetal is also one of the reasons Chrysler redesigned the second gen Barracuda for 1967 with its own unique sheetmetal to seperate it from the Valiant economy car it shared mechanicals with as well as a wider engine bay capable of swallowing a big block.

Chrysler also spawned 3 body styles and options noting that mustang was offered in a coupe, convertible and fastback. Rough estimates of 80K barracudas made in 67 showed a decent sales success over the lackluster sales of the 64-66 models, however it never had the mass sales success as the 64-68 Mustang.

As a side note I believe the 1967 Barracuda won an award for the most European looking American product for 1967.

As Paul Harvey used to say, heres the rest of the story.