More Floating Rumors about the Chrysler Cuda....

http://www.thecarlounge.com/ne...shtml We weren't surprised, in a way - rumors of a 'Cuda cousin for the Dodge Challenger have been floating around for a while, being mentioned as high up as Doctor Z himself. It's when news of 'Cuda production was mentioned by fabricator quasi-deity Chip Foose during an interview with us at the New York International Auto Show that we sat up and took notice. According to Foose, the new 'Cuda would be sold under the Chrysler brand.

Even though Plymouth's been unceremoniously scraped from the boot tread of DaimlerChrysler, there's an enormous amount of heritage in the brand, from the days before Plymouth engineers existed solely to slap grilles and taillights on Dodges. Plymouth was so different, in fact, that the '70-'74 'Cuda and Challenger shared no external sheetmetal and even had different wheelbases. Differentiation of that level isn't expected, with today's costs of federalization and the limited coupe market, so we've tried to capture some of that in our rendition of what a potential "new 'Cuda" could look like while keeping the Challenger hard points sacrosanct.

The single-round headlamps are from 1970, while the six-slot "cheese-grater" grille and "Hemi" callouts on the quarter-panel billboards are from 1971. The driving lamps and "shaker" hood were options on the original cars, and those retro details have been modernized and smoothed into the bodywork. Like the Challenger, our 'Cuda is a true two-door hardtop, with no "B" pillar, frameless windows, and rear quarter windows that descend into the bodywork. Later Challenger prototypes, such as the car shown at SEMA, have been sporting a black pillar behind the driver's door, which seems to indicate that DaimlerChrysler may be opting to make the models a post coupe. That would be where disappointment begins to set in.

Production engines for the Challenger, let alone the 'Cuda, have not come close to being announced, but we expect a base model to have the 3.5L V6 from the current LX sedans, since V6s tend to be volume sellers. Performance models should be available with either a 5.7-liter Hemi V8, and top-line cars to have the 6.1-liter V8 or possibly a version of the upcoming 392cid, 6.4-liter V8 that has been cleaned up to meet emissions standards. Expect either manual or automatic versions to be available.

Of course, at this point, rumors are just that. A quick glance at the USPTO shows that Chrysler's trademarks on 'Cuda and Barracuda are dead, and supplier leaks of new parts being tooled are nonexistent. But remember that, at one point, the Challenger was vaporware as well.

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