This is an email I recieved recently from Jim Holt after he happened by our site and found the road racing articles. If you have any information about this car and its history, Jim 9and the rest of us!) would love to hear from you.

I poked my head into the internet today and found your interest in MOPARs involved in sports car racing. I owned a 65 Barracuda in the mid-70's that had been raced in A-Sedan for ten years and converted it be (barely) street legal. It was purported by the previous owner to have been at the first Trans Am Series race at Sebring in 66, though I have never found any confirmation. He had been racing it in autocross events and the engine was about blown. He said his uncle had raced it in regional SCCA road races before he got it, so I figure NE Division early 70's might show up...maybe Lime Rock. Unfortunately I have no history in the form of names, numbers, races entered etc.

The proof of its legitimacy though was obvious in the car itself. It had been updated through later rule changes to have massive sheetmetal "bubble" flares on the rear quarters. The front fenders were beautifully reshaped to move the wheel opening up and bulged out with clearance for big rubber on 15" wheels. The tabs around the windshield and straps over the rear glass were still in place as was the four point roll bar. The previous owner had sprayed the whole car in black primer. I could see the outlines of number circles on the doors and decklid, but never sanded down to see what was there. He told me it had most recently been yellow and black.

The dash was an aluminum plate fastened with Dzus quick release studs. The T-bars, sway bars and rear springs were all huge, with solid heim joint mounting for the bars. It had a heim joint mounted panhard rod in the rear, on a drop mount to place it exactly horizontal. Adjustable Koni's were used all around. The car was so low it was difficult to street drive, especially with the added mufflers. It had one-piece Ford disc rotors mounted on the MOPAR spindles remachined for the Ford bearing dimensions. I had the machine shop drawings for the procedure in the documentation I received. A good idea as the MOPAR rotors back then were notorious for warping when hot. The 13-1 manual box with 15" rims and early TA radials (I forget the size) made it nearly impossible to steer unless it was moving, it probably didn't help that the steering wheel was pretty small. I fabricated a new aluminum dash plate so I could install a speedometer, fuel guage, turn signal indicators etc. I used a lot of early MG dash pieces, including rotary knob cable push-pull heater controls. That way I had a heater/defroster...I actually drove this car a lot. The windshield wipers were still "full race"... they had an on/off toggle switch and only one speed... blurred.

I put a front section replacement carpet in it with two Fiat 124 Spyder buckets, they were light and had good bolsters. I replaced the smoking race 273 with a forged piston 340 short block I built. I used the 340X heads from the race motor and the big solid Racer Brown cam. The race oil pan was used with its side extensions and internal baffles and hinged flaps. I bought a brand new Edelbrock six-pack intake and 3 new Holley carbs and set them up with a solid progressive linkage. It had original Doug Thorley under-chassis headers that were truly works of art but baked the starter if I drove any distance, even though I wrapped asbestos on an aluminum shield. It would take me half a day to dismantle the individual driver side header pipes to change out another starter. I used the original 3 inch dump pipes but spliced in Corvair turbo mufflers using reducers in front and "expanders" in back, (reducers turned around) because at the time I couldn't find mufflers bigger than 2.5 inches, they didn't do much good.

I had one amusing incident when a Massachusetts State Trooper pulled me over and didn't believe I had mufflers. He was on his hands and knees when his gun fell out of his holster. I jumped around yelling "loose gun, loose gun" just to be a wise ass. That along with my pony tail probably helped me get a ticket with a long list of equipment violations. With the aluminum flywheel and aluminum Schieffer (sp?) pressure plate and 18 spline Hemi trans that was slick-shifted (alternate syncro teeth ground off) it would viciously snap-rev power downshifts...most fun I ever had in a car and lucky to be alive. It was impossible to pull away smoothly though, the clutch was "in or out" and moving out from a stop sign in the middle of Chatham at one in the morning with a cop sitting next to Ho-Jo's watching was a real challenge. From the NMSL of 55 at the time, I could lope along in 4th (with the 3.55 gear set, I had a number of pumpkins with different ratios) and pull a power shift to second that would whiplash a passenger... girls would scream. I nearly knocked out my best friend cause he was tall enough to smack his head on the rollbar when I did that the first time.

Anyway, I can carry on endlessly about the adventures... the 2AM street tag races through Cape Cod back roads with the Ferrari/Lotus crowd... near death experiences. I ran illegal Cibie headlights, small aircraft landing lights in the grill and a tail/stop light cutoff switch for that game.

I bought it in Western Massachusetts, I think it was Groton, and sold it to a sports car guy in Rhode Island, probably 1979. I still have the VIN and some pictures. I am getting the photos digitized so I can send them around. They're from my girl friends lnstamatic so kind of lousy, but show the car pretty well...just not communicating how radical it was. I figure with your public presence representing the history you might have the connections to figure out where it came from and maybe where it went. I was just a young car-head at the time and wasn't too interested in its history. Most of the street scene (especially the MOPAR crowd) was obsessed with 1/4 mile performance and didn't get it anyway.

I'd like to hear any info you might have, and if you're interested, I'll send the photos when I get them processed. I'm sure I can think of lots more details especially if you have any questions.

Regards, Jim Holt