1970 Plymouth Cuda

In the late 70s and early 80s, factory performance was a shadow of its former glory and lightly used muscle cars were becoming increasingly scarce. To satisfy their unrelenting need for speed, car guys started taking older cars with high mileage motors and creating custom fabricated machines that imitated both the look and performance of purpose built drag cars. Dubbed Pro Street because of their builders ability to merge the performance of pro dragsters with the manners of traditional street cars, these machines literally represented the best of both worlds. This unassuming 1970 Plymouth Cuda is a 9.5 second magazine featured steel rocket that is just as comfortable commuting back and forth to work as it is making 140 MPH passes at the local strip on a Saturday afternoon.
Restored by Mascar Autobody and Paint in Costa Mesa California, this killer 70 Cuda is a clean west coast car that retains all of its original body panels save for an AAR style fiberglass hood. Its factory straight body was completely covered in a great looking coat of Plum Crazy Purple basecoat/clearcoat and accented with flat black paint on its hood, header panel and horizontal side panels. Up front, a traditional silver Cuda grille holds clear headlights and parking lights above a showroom fresh front bumper and displays the only Plymouth emblem on the entire car. Behind that grille, a custom fabricated AAR style hood that adds 1.5 inches of clearance to the cars engine bay is bolted to original hood springs and secured by two traditional hood pins. At the back of the hood, like new glass is bordered by excellent looking dent free stainless trim and straight three piece stainless drip rails. At the sides of the car, correct flush door handles and correct gold Chrysler pentastar emblems combine with traditional black 340 side stripes to give the car an innocent and deceitful factory look. Behind the stripes, a traditional black Cuda rear valence houses like-new tail lights, a cool silver cuda emblem and a battery kill switch above a second pristine chrome bumper. The car is simple, cool and could pass for an everyday classic Mopar if it wasnt for some serious rolling stock and chrome wheelie bars.
Pull the pins on the flat black fiberglass hood and youll find 427 cubic inches of naturally aspirated Mopar power! With a nasty 13 to 1 compression ratio and an estimated 750 horsepower, this bored and stroked small block 340 Race X motor isnt just another pretty engine without any guts; its a NASCAR spec monster thats capable of carrying this Cuda down the strip in 9.5 seconds at 140 MPH! Inside the massive black hood scoop a huge Holley Dominator 4 barrel carburetor sends 110 octane racing fuel and cool air from a high performance KN filter into a modified single plane Indy intake. At the sides of that intake, slick looking oval port Indy aluminum heads have been fitted with Ferrea 2.08/1.65 valves, K-Motion valve springs, TD rocker arms and welded Moroso aluminum valve covers. Inside the block a 4.00 inch Mopar performance crankshaft pushes Eagle 6.125 inch small block Chevy rods and CP pistons while a custom ground Comp cam with a 278/282 duration and 0.640/0.620 lift on a 108-degree lobe-separation angle pops Comp solid roller lifters and Smith Brothers pushrods. At the back of the motor, an MSD digital 7AL box with two-step launch control sends fire from a Painless wiring harness to a Mallory Unilite distributor and red MSD ignition wires. At the sides of the block, Hooker long tube headers that measure 3.5 inches at the collectors border a custom oil pan with a center link pass through, and in front of the block a custom aluminum radiator carries both an electric fan and a Seatrab transmission cooler. While this engines main purpose is to go straight at a very high rate of speed, its still very impressive to look at. The Plum Crazy Purple from the exterior of the car has been carried into the clean engine bay and contrasts nicely against the cars red engine block and great looking dress up pieces.
Underneath this Cuda youll find more no compromises hardware and professional grade race equipment. A Pro-Trans built 904 3-speed automatic shifts quickly and efficiently while a Turbo-Action trans brake and 5,700 stall Continental converter put a wheel stand inducing bite into the cars launches. Out back theres a stalwart Ford 9 inch rear end with an aluminum center section that carries pavement pounding Strange 4.30 gears and tough Moser 35 spline axles. Holding the engine off the ground is a factory torsion bar front suspension thats been upgraded with adjustable QA1 shocks and Wilwood manual disc brakes, and holding the rear end off the ground is Calvert monoleaf springs that are supplemented by adjustable Rancho 1000 shocks, CalTracs traction bars and two more Wilwood manual disc brakes. Theres a custom 16 gallon fuel cell out back which sends fuel through a Barry Grant electronic fuel pump, and the massive Hooker headers flow into a vicious sounding ITT three inch exhaust system thats complete with welded Dynomax mufflers and square stainless tips. At the corners, proven 15 inch aluminum Weld Pro Stars wear 28x4.5 Moroso DS-2 race only front tires and Mickey Thompson 325/50 ET Street radials in the rear. Looking good and driving great, this car is fully sorted and ready for the strip with custom fabricated sub-frame connectors, an aluminum driveshaft, a complete engine diaper, a transmission strap and shield, a driveshaft hoop and chrome wheelie bars.
The interior of this Cuda maintains all of its stock panels and carries the same wolf in sheeps clothing theme as the exterior. During the build a 10-point chrome-moly roll cage that is NHRA certified to 7.99 seconds was built and installed by Bob Miller at BMP in Prescott, Arizona. Inside that cage, youll find a stock vinyl rear bench and custom front buckets that have been upholstered with correct black vinyl and equipped with four point Simpson race harnesses. Between the seats, the cars original console sits on like-new black carpet and features a correct locking console, buttons for the cars power windows and a Hurst competition ratchet shifter that fits perfectly inside nice looking factory wood applique. At the sides of the seats, correct black door panels feature cool cuda emblems above great looking chrome door handles, and in front of the seats, the cars original dash hangs accurate Autometer gauges and sports a large Autometer tachometer with a built in shift light and RPM memory function. In front of the driver, a simple black Grant steering wheel is wired with a button that retards the cars timing, and behind the cockpit, the cars solid satin black trunk holds a 16 gallon fuel cell, an Optima gel cell battery and just enough room to haul supplies from a fast and fun trip to the supermarket.
With an extensive custom build like this one, youre going to want ample documentation. This car comes with a folder full of receipts, manuals and paperwork for many of the installed parts, a complete engine build packet and a copy of the Car Craft in which the car was featured.
Brutally fast yet completely streetable, this awesome 70 Cuda perfectly embodies the Pro Street philosophy. It has the potential to rip off blistering 9 second quarter mile passes, and will politely drive you home from the track 30 minutes later. With top notch craftsmanship and fully sorted performance components its ready to hit the strip tomorrow morning and win the show tomorrow night ...For more information please call the seller.