Hi everybody,
I'm Fabien, from Dunkirk (France), I'm 23, with some Detroit-made cars background, as my uncles have for a while a bunch of Corvette's and some Ford's.
But I'm happier than ever, as I'm the happy owner of a Mopar for now 2 years :mrgreen:
So it's a '70 Barracuda, but not that much the "Muscle Car" you all have, as it runs its original matching number 170ci and 3spd manual drivetrain.
Yep, I know what you think, there is no more 170ci in 1970, and not anymore in a Barracuda from 1965 !
This weird feature for a '70 Mopar is unique to Europe, where back in the days we had heavy taxes on high displacement engined cars)
Is was still common 15 years ago to meet some 170ci-3spd powered Chally's and Cuda's here in France or in Belgium, but now a lot of them have been "vee-eighted"
The car is far to be mint conditions, some bad bodywork have been done in the eighties, resulting in a bizarre shape (and a thick coat of mastic...) But It's a good runner, I've done 8.000 miles since I own it (the /6 gas mileage helps ! :D)
The 170 is a bit short of power in hilly areas, but I have a 225 Super-Six waiting to be fitted under the hood !
I'll keep and overhaul the 170 and 3 speed gearbox to stand right next to the car in the garage, as some folks do with a 426 hemi :haha:
Some pictures of the Barracuda (some with friends in her bedroom) :
(https://i62.servimg.com/u/f62/12/79/87/00/dscf1310.jpg)
(https://i11.servimg.com/u/f11/12/79/87/00/kimg2011.jpg)
(https://i62.servimg.com/u/f62/12/79/87/00/kimg2514.jpg)
(https://i62.servimg.com/u/f62/12/79/87/00/kimg2510.jpg)
(https://i86.servimg.com/u/f86/12/79/87/00/kimg0610.jpg)
Very nice car Fabien and :welcome: From Sylmar, CA
welcome from Normandie France :france:
:wave: Welcome to the site from New York, Fabian. :unitedstates:
Very cool car, :welcome: from sunny Florida (well maybe not right now).
:wave: Welcome from Ontario :canada: . That's got to be one rare Barracuda with the 170 ci engine. Way to go keeping it original too :bigthumb: .
I will also welcome you from :canada:
:welcome: From the :unitedstates:! Enjoy the car and the gas mileage. :twothumbsup:
:welcome: to the site.. :cheers:
Welcome to the site. Awesome car you have there.
I'm curious about the fender tag. Did your imported car keep it's original fender tag on the drivers inner fender?
or did it end up with no fender tag or other option tags?
Welcome from Colorado, neat barracuda you have
Welcome from Panama :wave:
If you mill the head .100 & port it you will gain a lot of power with the 225 , let me know if I can help with info , I have built a number of /6 engines this way with great results
:welcome: from Utha. Nice Cuda! :twothumbsup:
:welcome: from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada :canada:
You have found your E-Body home, the best E-Body site in the world...
Welcome from California. I love your car regardless of the size of the engine. Its an e-body in France, I consider that a win. Yes, save some money on gas as we know it is rather expensive in your neck of the woods. :france:
:welcome: from Tennessee nice Cuda. I've seen our local Chrysler dealers son back in the 70's drag race a slant 6 in a station wagon make some impressive passes. Alot can be done to the bigger 6 bangers. 8)
Welcome from B.C. Canada.
Thank you all for the warm welcome !
It is not an "Export" version from Hamtrack but a shipped-in-crate welded and assembled at the Chrysler-Nekaf factory in Rotterdam (Netherlands), this was from the end of the Marshall Plan up to the beginning of 70's, because of the extremely high import taxes for outside of Europe produced vehicles.
The Big Three of Detroit had some local assembly factories in Europe (Mainly NL, Belgium and UK) where stamped pieces of sheetmetal as well as everything needed to build the cars except regulation-submitted parts (Headlights, un-tinted glass and windshield...)
These European-Made Barracuda's do not have any fender tag, and only a partial VIN on the dash tag (No engine code nor Price level nor model and body, only the 8th last digits) I did not find any buildsheet neither yet (but I don't believe it exists on the Europe-made cars). However the car does have a full VIN embossed on the inner right fender and I do have the Chrysler Belgium Certificate of conformity with the matching VIN showing 'BH23Axxxxxxxx'
Engine Number shows a late 1969 Los Angeles production, so I guess it's the original one, never opened (but would need to !)
It however has some cool features for such a small drivetrain :
-Power front discs brakes,
-Floor shifter
-Center console with an on-top clock
-Bucket seat
-Tan interior
-Rim-blow steering wheel
I still has the originals 14" steel rims and the originals wire-wheel-looking hubcaps (the Pentastar is stamped on every single parts of them !) as well as the flat hood.
As I want to continue to drive it, but no longer with this asthmatic engine, but don't wanna hack the K-member as this car is fairly rare (And as I don't have no money for a second 70 Cuda !)
So I decided to build a 225+2 from the White Volaré above to fit under the hood of the Cuda "plug n' play"
The program for it is:
/6 198ci specs long rods milled to match the width of cast crank from the Volaré ,
Chrysler 2.2L turbo Hypereutetic pistons,
Block decking
Head porting and milling
A nice street cam
Dual cast exhaust from Doctor Dodge
A custom curved distributor
This will rev fast because of the light rotating combo (french way to make rallye engines!!) but still have plenty of torque with a well-chosen cam :)
Thanks for the clarification.
I've been told by Mexcuda over on CC.com that his father had purchased many mopars new in the 70's in Mexico and they did not retain their original fender tags or build sheets. They did replace the fender tag with another tag specific to Mexican mopars.
Sounds like yals cars were similar to Mexican standards.
Welcome to the forum from Atlanta! :welcome:
Quote from: cuda hunter on May 18, 2018, 11:15:23 AM
They did replace the fender tag with another tag specific to Mexican mopars.
Sounds like yals cars were similar to Mexican standards.
They did not replace any tag, as the cars were shipped as a bunch of spare parts ! (unwelded body panels, crate engines and trannies, axles in racks, interior parts in boxes...)
The "cars" were so not able to be tagged from the US. (As Chrysler did not manage in witch order the cars would be assembled and neither with witch option combo). Nekaf company who ran the Rotterdam factory only received from Chrysler a quantity of Serial-Nr stamped dash tags to be riveted on the assembled cars. :wrenching:
The cars were assembled according to dealer ordered options, or probably decided by the factory manager as well, I don't know, but Chrysler USA did not had nothing to do with the engine, axle, t-mission, body and option combination and the Nekaf company did not edit fender tag or so. The cars received an importer label plate (or not) according to the country they were sold in.
There is no known way to be perfectly sure those cars are originals or not, but the overall shape of mine and the lack of spare parts makes it clear that this car is a "survivor"
(as an exemple, when the system went wrong, the center hub of the rimblow wheel has been drilled to fit a pushbutton to actuate the horn...) :takemymoney:
Welcome from Ontario,Canada! :wave:
Thanks for the explanation of how those cars were built. Learn something new everyday here.
Could you post a pic of the 'console with on top clock'? Curious what that looks like. I don't think I've seen a console with a clock.
This is a pic from the seller when I purchased the car, the clock is bullet-shaped, it's european made. I already saw one like this at the very exact location on another Cuda maybe 10 years ago. I'll take another picture on my way home tonight (good weather today so I took the cuda at work !)
:welcome: from B.C. Canada. Really cool Barracuda you have. Thanks for showing us!
:welcome: cool looking car :australia:
Bienvenue to the site from Cambridge, Ontario and congrats on that rare Mopar! :wave:
bienvenue sur le site :france:
I received today via a friend from Belgium, this document from a retired member of the Rotterdam's Nekaf factory, and he confirmed that the 170ci was only available for Belgium market even thou the Netherland factory sales were wider than only BeNeLux
This sale brochure is in french, but if you are interested with a translation I can do that.
The funny thing is the right side table which does not mention the tan interior that I have in my car !
That's really neat.
Welcome from Tennessee, Very nice cuda :cheers:
:ohyeah: That's cool Fabien, keep that six on the road!! 8) And :welcome: from Kansas, U.S.A. :cheers:
Wow Cool car!
I never knew they actually assembled cars over there from parts sent.
Welcome to forum Fabien from SoCal, I really like that Slant6 E-body of yours. Keeping it a 6 to me is admirable. I too have a Slant 6 E-body in the form of a 70 Challenger. I have done the SuperSix change over on the 225 also w/ headers and dual exhaust. I like the way it runs even with the mini motor in it. Pics look great of your Barracuda. Thanks, Al
:welcome:
love the info!! not many of us e-body slanters left and it's always great to see another, but this one is whole 'nother level of cool with the 170ci in it!! I would imagine they are about as rare as a '70 Hemi.
I'll be doing a similar build on mine too, but going with EFI since it's become so cheap now. maybe do a supercharger down the road http://www.torqstorm.com/supercharger_kit_slant_6.html
A big warm welcome from West Michigan! Thanks for sharing the pictures, and any questions you have will be properly addressed here by all the wonderful members so willing to help out any way they can!
:welcome:
Quote from: ec_co on July 20, 2018, 08:05:26 PM
:welcome:
this one is whole 'nother level of cool with the 170ci in it!! I would imagine they are about as rare as a '70 Hemi.
I don't ever recall seeing a 170 /6 E body. Just the 225's.
Been into Mopars since the mid 70's.
They gotta be pretty rare.
Quote from: Topcat on July 21, 2018, 06:33:01 PM
Quote from: ec_co on July 20, 2018, 08:05:26 PM
:welcome:
this one is whole 'nother level of cool with the 170ci in it!! I would imagine they are about as rare as a '70 Hemi.
I don't ever recall seeing a 170 /6 E body. Just the 225's.
Been into Mopars since the mid 70's.
They gotta be pretty rare.
everything I've ever seen showed a 198ci or the 225ci (around 5500 total produced between the 2), never a 170ci until this thread and the brochure can't get more clear for authenticity. pretty cool. never say never with mopar
Even here in center Europe they are really rare, unfortunately it seems that I miss the original factory plate, But I still have a duplicate of the Certificate of Conformity delivered by Chrysler Benelux in Nivelles (Belgium) which is dated from december 1973 and mentioning the VIN of my car with the "A" engine code.
It's said that around 170 E-Bodies Barracuda's were built in the Nekaf factory in 1970 and were available for sale in Europe. As the 170ci seems to have been sold only in Belgium so they must be a very few of them (less than 20 I guess !)
I'll post a copy of my COC soon
Wow: That's rare (and obscure for most of us).
Welcome Fabien!
Nice to see you here as well!!!
Fabien and I met up a couple months ago when my wife and I did a 1000 miles road trip with our '70 Cuda from England to Hungary!
Met Fabien and his cool girlfriend who is into classic American cars as well!
Two '70 Plymouth Barracudas next to each other in Europe is as rare as hen's teeth!
Hi Peter ! Nice to see you here too !
An other 70 Barracuda is now in town since last month ! (a Cuda 340 now powered by a 440) I met the guy last week, we need to take pictures of both of them !
Bonjour Fabien, de Montréal....
J'avais manqué le premier post, vraiment intéressante ta voiture!
Salutations,
Benoit