1970 Plymouth Barracuda Cuda Hardtop Coupe

This car (AAR chassis #50211) is the first of three Plymouth 'Cudas constructed by Dan Gurney's All American Racers (AAR) for competition in the 1970 Trans Am Championship. It was driven by Dan Gurney and Swede Savage during pre-season testing and used in all of AAR's and Chrysler's pre-season promotional photographs. The car was then driven for the first two races by Dan Gurney until budget cuts by Chrysler forced AAR to reduce its two car effort to a single car for Savage. Savage then drove this car in all of the remaining races except Mid-Ohio. This car earned 12 of Plymouth's 15 points in the 1970 Trans Am. #50211's race history is as follows:

Laguna Seca - Gurney finished: 17th DNF
Lime Rock - Gurney finished 14th DNF
Bryar - Savage finished 18th DNF
Mid Ohio - Did not race
Bridgehampton - Savage finished 22nd DNF
Donnybrooke - Savage finished 5th
Road America - Savage finished 2nd
St. Jovite - Savage finished 29th DNF
Watkins Glen - Savage finished 5th
Kent - Savage finished 18th DNF
Riverside - Savage finished 4th

The second AAR 'Cuda was driven by Swede Savage with the number 42 for three races (Laguna Seca, Lime Rock and Mid-Ohio) before being destroyed at St. Jovite by Savage during a practice crash. AAR did not repair the severely damaged car.

In an effort to provide Plymouth with a Trans Am victory, Gurney returned for the season's final two races (Kent and Riverside) where he drove AAR's recently completed third 'Cuda with the number 48. That third car ran only in those 2 races.

The car was acid dipped, then referred to as 'chemically cleaned', and has many titanium parts which were carried over from Dan Gurney's champ car and F1 efforts. The transmission was aluminum cased but sprayed with cast iron spray to pass tech and the magnet test. AAR was the first team to design and implement a lug nut retaining system which was later used by many teams. The NASA inspired fiberglass hood was unique and used on the street version. The roll cage was the first to be designed entirely by computer and was run in the 'Cudas and Challengers. AAR also prepped and installed the cage in the Sam Posey Challenger prior to being shipped off to Ray Caldwell's Autodynamics. In 1982, Ed Skanes purchased the car and restored it to original specifications for vintage racing.