1971 Plymouth Cuda

Plymouth's Barracuda began in 1964 as a small fastback built on the Valiant platform. By 1970 it had been rebuilt as a wider, lower car that could take any of Chrysler's big engines, and the sporty version was called the 'Cuda.

The 1971 model year is the one collectors single out. It was the only year the 'Cuda had four headlights and gills on the front fenders, and the last year for the 426 Hemi, the 425-horsepower engine Plymouth had first developed with racing in mind. Plymouth built fewer than 120 Hemi 'Cudas that year, and only eleven were convertibles.

Plymouth's catalog in those years included loud High Impact colors, among them a purple it called In-Violet.

A purple 'Cuda sits on a wet road above the ocean under a thunderous sky, a scoop on its long hood and a single break of light on the horizon over the water. A headland drops away behind it, and a lone evergreen stands at the right.