1966 Plymouth Valiant Barracuda

For 1966, the front of the Plymouth Barracuda was redesigned while the rear of the vehicle remained mostly unchanged. In the front was a new split Valiant grille opening. Barracuda script could be found in the front of the forward wheel openings. The cars fitted with the 'S' option included small circular medallions placed below with the script.

The Barracuda BV1-P Series came equipped with the 225 cubic-inch Slant Six engine as standard equipment. The 273 cubic-inch two-barrel V9 was standard in the BV2-P series Barracuda. Also standard was a three-speed manual transmission. A TorqueFlite automatic and four-speed manual transmission could also be purchased.

Chrysler withdrew from NASCAR in 1965 after the company's new HEMI was banned from competition. Instead, they focused their efforts on the newly formed Trans Am racing series, creating a special model of its sporty A-body fastback, with support of Team Starfish, a newly formed team that included factory-drivers Scott Harvey and Richard Petty. A handful of Barracuda 'customer cars' was built for homologation purposes in the Trans Am series Group III.

NASCAR and Chrysler eventually reached an agreement, allowing the Hemi to compete. Chrysler returned to NASCAR in 1966 and ceased production of the Barracuda racer, making it a limited-production, one-year model. They did, however, continue to support Team Starfish in hopes of bolstering sales of the Barracuda against the Mustang.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jun 2019