When it comes to classic cars, everything with fewer than 50,000 miles (80,467 km) on the odo is labeled as a low-mileage rig nowadays. But believe it or not, some vehicles soldiered for decades with fewer than 10,000 miles (16,093 km) on the clock. This 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda is one of those cars.
How is it possible for a vehicle that's more than 50 years old to display such low mileage? Well, sometimes life gets in the way, and the owners are forced to park their cars early. This 'Cuda went into storage in the 1980s and resurfaced in 2023 with only 4,469 original miles (7,192 km) on the odometer.
And even though it sat for about 40 years, it's in excellent condition. It's been repainted before it was parked, but everything else is factory original. It's the kind of time capsule we don't get to see every day, especially when it comes to rare Mopars like this one. Yup, the 'Cuda you're looking at is not a run-of-the-mill Barracuda. It's a fully-fledged HEMI model, one of only 666 produced in 1970.
The third-generation Barracuda was quite popular in its first year in showrooms, moving nearly 49,000 units in the US. But the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8 wasn't. Due to high insurance costs for muscle cars at the time, less than 2% of Barracuda owners checked the HEMI 'Cuda box on the options list.
Of the 666 examples sold that year, 652 left the factory as hardtop models. This 'Cuda features a Torqueflite automatic, which narrows it down to one of 368 units made. The original owner also went with a green-on-green color combo (EF8 Ivy Green), which isn't very common.
The 'Cuda still rocks its original sheet metal, while both the HEMI and the transmission are numbers-matching. It doesn't get much better than this, right?
But is this the lowest-mileage 1970 Barracuda out there? It is not. The lowest-mileage 1970 HEMI 'Cuda known to exist is a TorRed hardtop that crossed the auction block in 2021 with just 86 miles (138 km) on the odo. The car had its engine removed after delivery and raced at the dragstrip. It was reunited with its original HEMI in the 1970s.
But while it's not the lowest-mileage 1970 'Cuda out here, this green HEMI is a rare time capsule. And it emerged from storage in 2023 after 50 years with the same owner to cross the block at Kissimmee 2024. It found a new owner for $148,500, including the buyer's premium, which is a low number for a survivor in this condition.
It's one of five 1970 HEMI 'Cudas auctioned off at the event and the second least expensive. It was surpassed by a pair of hardtops that sold for over $200,000 and one of only 14 HEMI 'Cuda Convertibles that fetched a whopping $2.14 million. Check it out in the video below.
Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. Full profile
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