A Cuda driver from France (1970 slant 6 made in Europe)

[nsmall]

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.

[LinceCuda]

  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. 

[RUNCHARGER]

Welcome from B.C. Canada.

[Vettefab]

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

[cuda hunter]

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. 

[71-440]

Welcome to the forum from Atlanta!

[Vettefab]

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.

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...)

[dodj]

Welcome from Ontario,Canada! 
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.

[Vettefab]

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 !)

[xx88man]

   from B.C. Canada. Really cool Barracuda you have. Thanks for showing us!

[cudamadd]

  cool looking car 

[jimynick]

Bienvenue to the site from Cambridge, Ontario and congrats on that rare Mopar! 

[Lilian]

bienvenue sur le site 

[Vettefab]

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 !

[RUNCHARGER]

That's really neat.