just a thought

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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wouldn't it have more sense if they would have left the newly re-designed duster body for 70 as named the barracuda because in essence a duster is a 70s A-body cuda because it filled in where the A-body barracuda left off. They could have named the new E-body chasis as the duster so that way it would have been a car and new name.

the way it really happened caused confusion ....I have seen people see a 70 cuda and say its either a 69 or 70 and argue when its like ......whoa how to you mistake the two.

cant change history but just a thought of what could have been had there been a way they could have known what would happen sales wise. When the duster was created, they really didn't know what to expect sales wise and the car just flew off the dealer lots.
 
As I understand it they wanted a bare bones cheap car as they spent a lot of money on the E body. The E body was going to have big blocks and more expensive options and to do battle with new Mustang. Corporate heads was not really aware of the Duster platform and there was only 15 million set aside for Duster which barrowed many parts from Valliant. Big departure was curved glass into Valliant doors. Chrysler did very well with Duster line up and was a great fit for 340 in 1970 and sold a ton of these cheap cars as inexpensive basic tranportation.
 
Maybe I didn't answer you well here I think Chrysler was thinking A bodies were not up the handling for big blocks and really wanted to do battle with Mustang. They had started down that road as selling Barracuda as the Mustang equal and E body was renamed Cuda. That sales pitch is the only reason that I know of to carry over name into E body.
 
dusterny said:
Or I'm all wet in my thinking !
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There is no right or wrong ...... you brought up some good points ....I forgot about the bb mustang.

Almost seems like they should have put out the e- body chasis back in 66 or 7 to better compete with camaro and bb mustang
 
The first Barracuda in 1964 was based on the Valiant line.

Same with the Duster, that is why they wear Valiant badges for '70 models.

The E-bodies were in design mode about 1968, but it takes a while to bring a new concept to market.
 
Revhendo said:
The Duster wasn't even supposed to exist. It was a total clandestine backroom build.

http://www.valiant.org/duster.html
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I love that story because who would have thought the car that was never supposed to exist would be the car that outsold some of the other car lines and fly off the dealer lots lol

I love this chat with you guys......I wish I had some local people to car chat with but no dice.....most of my local friends are like "what is a valiant.....do you mean like prince valiant in the funnies.....like OMG"
 
Rainy Day Auto said:
I love that story because who would have thought the car that was never supposed to exist would be the car that outsold some of the other car lines and fly off the dealer lots lol

I love this chat with you guys......I wish I had some local people to car chat with but no dice.....most of my local friends are like "what is a valiant.....do you mean like prince valiant in the funnies.....like OMG"
Click to expand...

Next time you go to Disneyland, swing by and say howdy.:blob:
 
Yes it would've made more sense but the Barracuda was already slated to go to the E-body platform which then made plymouth design the Duster due to no longer having a sporty A-body. But putting sense aside, they made the perfect car! "These here are the sleekest, sexiest lines American engineers could come up with"
 
My Duster was super solid and extremely reliable.

When I was a kid, the neighbor lady was a total Duster freak.
Bought a new 71 or 72 and then traded it in on a 75 or 76.
I think she still had that last one in the late 80's.

Some of the "extenuating circumstances" or "if, then" explanations on Mopar are tedious to explain to the non-Mopar crowd.

A Satellite is "top pf the line" in 65, 66, and 67, mid-line in 68-70, and a base model in 71-74. Prior to 65, Top of the line B body was a Fury. Fury is a C body from 65 to 74, and then a B body again in 75.

A Coronet "440" does not automatically come with a 440 CID engine, despite the fender badges. (Do you think a Coronet "500" comes with a 500 CID?, how about a Rambler "770"?) This is especially fun if you have a poly 318 (look how BIG it is...)(that doesn't look like the 318 in my buddy's Duster...), and just beat a gm 350 in a street race :)
 
Yes, it would have made more sense from a shear logic perspective.
But have you not watched “Mad Men”?
You know it was about marketing back then.
Barracuda was the better name. (Isn’t it?)
So I figure “Barracuda” got the high profile, big gun car that was going to carry that torch.
Isn’t it odd that the 68-69 Barracuda was arguably a better looking car compared to the 67-68 Mustangs?
(I recently found an article to that effect. I'll look)
A good compromise for logic sake, on your name question, would to let the Barracuda name stay with the A line and find something else for the E body Plymouth.
I don’t think Duster would have worked. And Road Runner was taken.(Best name ever)
Name games are full of ironies.
I guess someone didn’t like Demon. Never mind the deviled eggs at the church picnic.
Now we are at “Hellcat”? I could do better.
They should have consulted me on that one.



[ame]https://youtu.be/5MJLi5_dyn0[/ame]
 
The E body was designed specifically to compete with the camaro, mustang and javelin in the SCCA racing series. That is why the small block T/A and AAR were available right out of the gate.
 
i'd argue the E body was designed to sell cars! racing was always a by product. the E body was ma mopars hope to compete in sales with the stang and camero. e body was everything sporty.... from 318 to hemi and everything in between. RT, RTSE, 440 4 bbl u codes, TA AAR, and everything in between????
I would say Cuda was given that name to the ply e body, as it had developed a hotrod following.....
 
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