The holiday season is nearing the home stretch now. Time for another replay of "All I Want For Christmas is 'U'". Are you sick of it yet? Buick, Datsun, Peugeot, Austin-Healey, Lotus, Triumph, and now back to America with a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda convertible in a seasonably festive downtown area. While the other cars this month were dug out of my archives, this one was just spotted a week ago as of publishing.
It's funny. When I decided on an obscure theme for Christmas I figured it would be easy to fill in the blanks. After all, with about 20 car brands from Acura to Wuling with a U in their name, how hard could it be? Well, I haven't been to Rodeo Drive in a while so I don't have any Bugattis to share. But one evening while returning from a junkyard trip I hopped off the freeway to avoid traffic, took a side road and detoured further because of an accident on my on-ramp. So I continued on into historic downtown Pleasanton. Sure enough, I stumbled upon the Spirit and Sweater Stroll event, frequented by lots of people in goofy holiday attire sampling drinks at bars and restaurants. While a band played Christmas instrumentals and locals milled around in Santa hats, I caught a fabled fish to share with you.
We've looked at four other Barracudas over the years here, ranging from a couple of '65s to a '67 coupe and a '70 Gran Coupe. But there's never been a convertible until now. I see this car semi-regularly at local shows but rarely just being used as a car. Chrysler keeps pretty good records of its muscle and pony cars, indicating that a total of 4,228 Barracuda convertibles left the factory for 1967. That number isn't broken down further except by general engine type and/or transmission. I only know that it's a V8 car with an automatic. I would guess it's a 273 cubic inch small block car as there are no S badges and it appears to have a single exhaust. Cragar S/S wheels on BF Goodrich white letter radials lend it a retro tough look that more modern wheel and rubber combos struggle to match. Plain white over a black interior is a classic look, though the gray fabric seats seem to have come from something out of the '80s or '90s that I can't quite place. In the interest of comfort and safety I'm sure the more modern seats are an improvement. It looks to be a solid driver condition example of an uncommon pony car. The fact that the '67 Barracuda is one of my favorite Mopars helps as well.
Photographed December 2023
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