1965 Plymouth Barracuda

The 2-door Sport Hardtop Barracuda, which had been introduced in 1964, received only minor changes for 1965. The 'Valiant' nameplate was no longer found on the exterior of the vehicle and a 'Formula S' competition package became available. The Formula S came with a 273 cubic-inch four-barrel V8 engine offering 235 horsepower. Additionally, they had heavy-duty rear springs, a heavy-duty torsion bar setup in the front, sway bars, wide wheel rims, Goodyear Blue Streak wide oval tires, rally stripes, tachometer, and 'Formula S' medallions.

The base engine for the United States market was the 225 Slant-6 and the 170 CID version in Canada. The 273 CID V8 engine had solid valve lifters, overhead valves, five main bearings, a Carter two-barrel carburetor, and delivered 180 horsepower at 4,200 RPM. The Command 273 had a Carter four-barrel carburetor, 10.5:1 compression, and offered 235 horsepower.

New options this year included a factory-installed air conditioning system and disc brakes.

In total, 64,596 examples were built in 1965.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jul 2015