AAR

[Chryco Psycho]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-Plymouth-Barracuda-1970-Plymouth-Barracuda-Cuda-AAR-/264399247268?oid=163644115102

[Spikedog08]

Not my first choice of color but certainly a fine example of a nice AAR!   

[anlauto]

I was going to say the price was high....but then I saw the BENCH SEAT AUTO    Must be rare ...it has to be worth that much    at least I hope so...

[cuda hunter]

What is the M designation in the sequence number? 

[70 Challenger Lover]

Nice car and certainly unusual.

I'd love to meet the guy who ordered it originally and ask him why he ordered a flashy rare car in a super boring color along with a boring bench seat and grandma column shifter. Might as well get the luggage rack, mud flaps and curb feelers too.

[JH27N0B]

Few if any AARs or T/As were ordered by customers.  Chrysler had to build them in a short period of time to get the required number built to qualify the configuration for the Trans Am race series. So they built them and then sent to the dealers to sell them, though I've heard sales managers at dealers sometimes checked off the option boxes to configure cars coming into their dealership.
Column shift automatics were not uncommon in muscle cars in that era for several reason.  Most were being bought by young guys and many wanted a front bench so their girlfriend could get up close and personal when she was in the car with him.
Also some cars bought for drag racing were column shift because the shifter mechanism weighed less than a floor shift with console, and they planned to just put the car in drive and let the trans shift itself for consistency in their 1/4 mile times.

[70 Challenger Lover]

Makes sense. I guess I'm looking at what's popular today. If I were spending that kind of dough today for an AAR, I'd want a cool color and a four speed for sure.

[RUNCHARGER]

Yup: Me too but as said, most of these weren't ordered cars and came whatever way they came. They tried to keep the prices down on them as well.

[anlauto]

Dan @6bblgt please correct me if I'm wrong.... talking 70 Barracuda's in general

3 spd manual was the base transmission installed if you didn't order any optional transmission

If you ordered the Automatic it came standard with the column shift UNLESS you ordered a floor shift

So was the bench seat also the standard UNLESS you ordered buckets ???

If the salesman checked off "automatic transmission", but NOTHING else, would that be how we would get a bench seat/column auto car ?

[Spikedog08]

Dan @6bblgt please correct me if I'm wrong.... talking 70 Barracuda's in general

3 spd manual was the base transmission installed if you didn't order any optional transmission

If you ordered the Automatic it came standard with the column shift UNLESS you ordered a floor shift

So was the bench seat also the standard UNLESS you ordered buckets ???

If the salesman checked off "automatic transmission", but NOTHING else, would that be how we would get a bench seat/column auto car ?

All interesting questions . . .

[6bblgt]

Yes, the floor mounted 3-speed manual transmission was STANDARD on Barracuda / Gran Coupe / 'cuda
Yes, the OPTIONAL (~$200) automatic transmission was column mounted unless the OPTIONAL (~$55) console was also ordered
bucket seats were STANDARD on Barracuda / Gran Coupe / 'cuda, the OPTIONAL (~$15) bench seat was available with automatic transmission ONLY

[anlauto]

So interesting...Someone actually had to check off "bench seat" ? So in an AAR, or any other high performance Cuda that would have to be a pretty rare option...

[6bblgt]

the bench seat was available "in-the-day" to allow a significant other to sit close to the driver or for a family of 5+ persons to actually "fit" in an e-body 

a necessity when the cars were daily transportation but not as desirable now that they are used as cruise, show, garage/trailer queens.  ~17% of the '70 Plymouth E-bodies had the OPTIONAL bench seat (about 1 in 6)

a bench seat was NOT available in a Challenger R/T

[anlauto]

Highway head ?

[318Stroker]

Highway head ?

Oh how I long for the good ole days...