I'm 57, and the first car I legally drove was a '67 notchback Barracuda that was a driver training car. It had a slant six with auto, and at the time I had no idea that I would become a Barracuda owner later in life. I did have some Mopar exposure as a kid--my uncle had a '62 Valiant, and later a '67 Dart GT (slant six/auto) that my family bought from him in '72 for $1,000. I drove the Dart my senior year in high school and all the way through college. After graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, I had enough money to qualify for car payments(!), so I bought a new Thunderbird (I don't know why, except maybe I thought it would impress the women), and the Dart was sold for $300. My grandfather also had a '64 Polara and a '65 Custom 880 that my father acquired when my grandmother died in 1968. My brother totaled that car, which still smelled new and only had 17,000 miles on it, in 1975 when the front brake hose failed due to dry rot. But I digress--I could not go through my senior year in high school without a hot rod, so I bought the cheapest thing I could find--a '66 Valiant with a '68 340 in it for $575. I went through the motor in '75, adding a few goodies--also found an 8-3/4 rear end with springs from a '70 Dart for $60 including springs and brakes. I ran a 4.30 gear, and with the six-cylinder torsion bars, it actually launched pretty well, but I usually put in a clutch once a year. I found a '65 Barracuda in '78, and swapped the 340 and rear end from the Valiant into the cuda. I was tired of the yearly clutch routine, so went with a 727 Torqueflite. I still have that car, but the 340 is a little tired after 37 years, since I built the motor without planning for the complete demise of unleaded gas.
