1971 Barracuda Gran Coupe With Malaise Surprise V8 Is Out To Win You Over One More Time

Nice new looks didn’t favor the Plymouth pony car much, with sales going down at an alarming rate compared to the third generation’s first year, 1970. Volumes shrunk three-fold for reasons that only insurance companies could explain. It was clear that the spirited, rebellious – with or without a cause – attitude of the sixties was getting muffled.

That’s probably the number one reason Barracuda sales dropped from almost 49,000 in 1970 to 16,500 the following year. Even though the engine options remained high, they didn’t offer the same shivering feeling when going through the specs. Apart from the 426 HEMI, which was untouchable since 1966 and would stay true to its specs until its demise in 1972, all the other big-block engines suffered power cuts.

In 1971, the 383-cube V8 (Chrysler’s famous 6.3-liter motor) was no longer offered in the hottest variant, the 335-hp, which had lured many buyers in the past - and had made the Road Runner famous. The two remaining choices had both been detuned significantly. The two-barrel lost 15 horses (from 290 to 275), while the four-barrel had been decimated – down to 300 hp from its 330 might.

A new slant-six was introduced in 1971, the 198-cubic-inch (3.2-liter) one-barrel engine with low compression and equally low power (125 hp). Prospects didn’t like the changes at all and turned away from the Barracuda. The body style might have been created to accommodate every Chrysler powerplant available, but that didn’t make said engines equally affordable from the insurance premiums’ perspective.

The most brutal blow landed by the freefalling sales volumes was received by the Gran Coupe variant, the luxury Barracuda that was a hardtop. It was, in fact, the only available body style for the posh E-Body Plymouth, and it convinced a little over 1,300 customers to pay the $3,000+ before options. The Gran Coupe carried only three engines – the standard 318-cube V8 (5.2-liter) with its mild-satisfactory two-barrel performance of 230 hp.

The net output was factory-rated at 150 hp – the newly introduced SAE reporting system didn’t help the car industry's marketing departments. The optional V8s were the 383s, the same as in 1970, but rather curiously, the 225-Slant-Six (3.7-liter) was axed from the Gran Coupe offer in 1971. Still, this alone could explain why the nameplate had dropped six times in buyer’s preference over the previous year.

It wasn’t that the Gran Coupe didn’t offer spoils – quite the contrary, it put them on the table without hesitation (save for the hot engines available only for the ‘Cuda – the 440-Six Barrel and the 426 HEMI). Some examples had to be fitted with a second fender tag; that’s how loaded they came. Check the car in the gallery – it’s a wounded veteran of 1971 who had to undergo a heart transplant some 35 years ago, but it's otherwise untouched.

This red Gran Coupe Barracuda was once a fine car, and its owners didn’t give it the silent treatment once it fell out of their favor. As it happens, in the first 14 years of its life, it had two owners; come 1985, the car was purchased by its third – and current – caretaker. The man was a college student then, and the Gran Coupe became his daily. That was until he took his Plymouth over the Tehachapi Mountains, some one-and-a-half-hours away from Barstow, CA, and the engine gave up on life.

Deemed a total loss, the original 318 V8 in the car was soon replaced by a rebuilt 360-cube V8 (5.9-liter), and this transplant kept the red Barracuda on the road for another five years. The owner moved to Pennsylvania in 1993, and the following year, he bought another car to brave the winters. But he didn’t just abandon his Gran Coupe: the Mopar was retired in the garage, safely away from the metal-hungry elements.

The car is now put up for sale after some three decades of sitting. The 360 and the original Torqueflite three-speed automatic are still in it. Besides the V8 and the radio, everything on the car is authentic, inluding the 54K miles / 87,000 km – and the body doesn’t show signs of steel cancer. Yes, there are some minor rust spots, but nothing serious.

The ad on eBay – put up by a friend of the owner – doesn’t specify if the 360 is in running condition or if there are any other issues. Attached to this story, two videos will reveal a little more about the state of this 1971 Plymouth Barracuda Gran Coupe, including a very detailed look at the underside. By the way, this looks solid enough to justify the current bid of $28,500 three days before the sale closes. Notably, the opening price was a symbolic $1,971, but the car quickly drew the attention of over a dozen potential buyers.