So where are these 500, 1966 Barracudas?

[bohica2xo]

Surely one or two have survived right?

I am talking about the 500 cars described in this document signed by H. E. Weiss & R. J. Cahill. Describing "In excess of 500 cars" produced between November 15th 1965 & December 15th 1965. Vin numbers B_29_6_ _ _ _ _ _ _ With engine numbers X31B_ _

Surely they were telling the truth about those cars.

They even gave the FIA pictures of the equipment in the cars:

The cars should be easy to spot. They have only two seats, they hold 40 gallons of fuel and weigh 2550 pounds without gas:

They has plexiglass rear windows, the seats only weigh 20 pounds with the rails & the car rides on 15x7 wheels:

The 318 in them had 2.00 intake and 1.65 exhaust valves, along with solid lifters. It was fitted with a 4160 Holley on an aluminum intake:

The battery was mounted in the trunk:

sounds like a fun car. They had to sell them to comply with the FIA rules. Back then to compete in FIA with that "GT" it had to be available through dealers.

So who is hording all this iron?

B.

 

[66340SEDAN]

Were those autocross cars? Cool info

 

[toolmanmike]

Were those autocross cars? Cool info

X2 that's cool info for sure.

 

[brad2v]

I take it for events such as Lemans and the like? Cool, I had no idea. Someone on here has got to know more.

 

[SSVDP]

That is fascinating. Never heard of this '66 GT. I wonder if it has anythingto do with Scott Harvey running the Monte Carlo rally?

 

[1968FormulaS340]

[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintage_racer/sets/72157606722666020/"]1966 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S - Team Starfish - a set on Flickr[/ame]

Some real bad video from 1967
http://video.google.com:80/videopla...=52&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

 

[bohica2xo]

FIA is the sanctioning body for much of European racing. Those cars would have been raced in road races all over europe.

Here is the second page of the document that identifies the model as "Barracuda G.T."

.

 

[grimreaper]

Very interesting stuff. Nice find!

 

[66340SEDAN]

:glasses7:

 

[vitamindart]

very cool!

 

[mikedevore]

I love this type of storey/history.

 

[memike]

Thank you :glasses7: This is very interesting story and a bit of history to enjoy and share :thumleft:

 

[moper]

That's not a plastic window in that crash pic... You can see the chards of busted safety glass still in the channel.
Wicked cool tho. Never even heard of them, aalthough I thought there were some special Barracudas for the rally in South America... I can't recall the name.. Pan-America Rally or something?

 

[Krash Kadillak]

My brother-in-law did some S.C.C.A. racing back in '65 and '66, and one of his cars was a Barracuda. From what I remember, it was originally a Chrysler-supported Trans-Am vehicle, that was sold off when the TA team got new vehicles for the next season. They (BIL's team) raced it primarily on the west coast, but did make a trip (or trips) to Las Vegas and Texas IIRC.

I sent him an e-mail about the letter - I'll see what he knows about it.

Marshall

 

[YY1]

Wow, thanks for the info!

I'll take one!

 

[bohica2xo]

Thanks for all the pics. None of those appear to be FIA legal cars.

I started to chase this after a trip to Goodwood a few years ago. This is actually how I wound up with a 1965 Barracuda in my driveway.

We were at the Goodwood Revival, which is vintage racing with a cutoff at 1966. They are connected to the FIA, an try very hard to have cars that follow the specs. I took a lot of pics of things that interested me, and had a great time. Then I looked through my wife's camera card, and found a lot of pics of one Barracuda:

I ran down the owner and found out that it was built to "FIA 535", but was restricted to a 273 because the 318 was not available in 1965. He built the car, and his son was the driver. Kid was tossing the little car around pretty hard too. If you are not familiar with that track, the turn you are looking at has a decreasing radius and a camber change. He was hanging the back end out on every lap:

You could hear that little 273 before you could see the car - the wife said it "sounded different" He was spanking the mustangs with it, and we both liked that. Even the Dart that was out there did not have a chance...

He passed a lot of cars, some of them in that corner. He could gobble up the mustangs, but he could not get past the Thunderbolts on the track. I think this guy just moved out of his way:

It was clear that my wife wanted a Barracuda. 40 frames of one car. We both dislike mustangs. She was not fond of my Thunderbolt. So I went shopping for a Barracuda. First mopar in my driveway since 1974.

I had been looking for a copy of "535" for a long time. The language barrier with the FIA is a pain in the butt. Many thanks to Team Starfish for running this document down - were it not for a bilingual canadian the FIA would never have dragged up a 47 year old document.

 

[Anthony Shelton]

I think they raced one in baja with a 318

 

[Krash Kadillak]

My brother-in-law did some S.C.C.A. racing back in '65 and '66, and one of his cars was a Barracuda. From what I remember, it was originally a Chrysler-supported Trans-Am vehicle, that was sold off when the TA team got new vehicles for the next season. They (BIL's team) raced it primarily on the west coast, but did make a trip (or trips) to Las Vegas and Texas IIRC.

I sent him an e-mail about the letter - I'll see what he knows about it.

Marshall

OK....got a reply from my B.I.L......

"The wrecked 0 AS car in the pictures you sent was my first car. My partner Dale crashed it in our first race. That was the final race of the TransAm Series at Riverside in 1966. It was not one of the 500 homoligation vehicles, but purchased directly from the factory in 1966, without the noted mods. I have no idea where those homoligation vehicles went, but I suspect some were the Team Starfish cars, raced by the factory team of Scott Harvey and two other drivers with one spare.
Scott was the #1 factory suspension engineer who founded and was #1 driver of the factory Trans Am team. Prior to that he founded the Trans Canada Rally for Chrysler Corp. and won 2 or 3 of them.
In spring 1967 he called me and advised Chrysler would no longer support a factory team, provide hemi engines to Keith Black or sponsor Richard Petty. He then offered his factory racer for a price less than $400 as an incentive to race in the Western U.S. We drove to Detroit and towed it back to CA.
The attached picture is of that car en-route in Sept 1967, to the 6 hour day/night endurance race at the newly introduced and short lived Stardust International Raceway, Las Vegas"

"I was subsequently transferred to Dallas and left the car with Dale in CA. He towed it to Dallas for the first Trans Am race at the new Dallas International Motor Speedway in 1988, but the race was cancelled. I inherited the car and later sold it to my attorney, never to be seen again."

 

[pishta]

That's not a plastic window in that crash pic... You can see the chards of busted safety glass still in the channel.
.....

I was thinking the exact same thing before I even read your post....

 

[pishta]

.410/.430 camshaft...probably get one made with alll the specs they tell in the document. Kinda week for road racing, eh?

 

[bohica2xo]

.410/.430 camshaft...probably get one made with alll the specs they tell in the document. Kinda week for road racing, eh?

A complete set of cam specs are in the document. Not a bad cam with those valves in a 318. Remember that a broader power band is good for that sort of racing, and the car was to be sold to the public as a street car for homologation.

I do wish there were better pics of the factory headers. Obviously they had a set that fit & worked.

B.

 

[604]

If I were a betting man I would say they were the same Doug's headers that came on the D stock darts.

 

[junkfisher]

there is a write up on the 273 commando in HotRod magazine. it gave demensions for header length (unequal), dia, etc. The article stressed street performance over drag racing. I still have the mag, I'll see if I can find it. It has the commando engine on the cover

 

[junkfisher]

This what I want to build out of my '66 cuda. I knew that they werre road raced but I never knew about the GT. Way cool info. We have a local road course nearby and it is open to non members once or twice a year. I am using an aluminum bumper from unknown origin (looks good tho!) and valiant grilles (aluminum). Am looking for beefier T-bars or augment with non mopar sway bar. I am always glad to see road/rally car info! thanks!