Words: Tommy Parry
Thirteen years after picking up the Barracuda, Mike finally brought it up to his exacting standards. A mechanical engineer, Mike spent three dedicated years doing all the major work, minus the paint job, inside his two-car garage. It’s an incredible accomplishment considering his busy schedule, the lack of space and the amazing parts list.
Life intervened in Mike’s build shortly after he picked up the car, and he relegated it to a dusty space in the garage; several years into ownership, however, he got the itch.
“The ‘Cuda had a hopped up 318 at the time which, for what it was, ran pretty well. It managed a 13.68 in the 1/4 mile, but it was just wasn’t enough. The car had some trunk rust, the suspension was old, the engine was low on power and the automatic would put me to sleep. It was time to do something with it,” he recounts.
From the outside it appears to be a fairly average ’70’s ‘Cuda, but the subtle modern “HEMI” badge on the scoops and the red multi-piston Wilwood calipers hint that there may be more to the car than it seems. The motor, a 5.7L Hemi, sports a bigger cam, TTA 1 ¾” headers and a Megasquirt MS3 Gold Box. The new ECU enables Mike to use launch control, no-lift-shifts and traction control. With a hall effect sensor on the front right wheel and a speed sensor on the T56 gearbox, the ECU is able to manage a target percent-slip between the front and rear tires to maintain maximum acceleration without making a smoke show!
“Now, of course, that also has a switch to turn it off, if I want to,” he adds with a chuckle.
Fuel delivery comes courtesy of a TANKS Inc. EFI tank with baffles, a Marine-style fuel sending unit, a JakeFab fuel puck with an Aeromotive 340lph pump, -6AN lines and a Corvette filter/regulator. They’re enough to keep the Hemi’s thirst quenched while cornering hard – which, with the suspension modifications present, it’s more than capable of doing.
Getting the roadholding up to modern standards required a Hotchkis suspension package. With a 1” torsion bar, strut rods, upper control arms, sway bars at both ends and aluminum tie rods, Mike can keep the platform flat and the widened footprint on the pavement more of the time. Additionally, a fast ratio Borgeson steering box gives a rack-like feel while also shedding a few pounds off of the front end. Best of all, the Nitto NT05 tires can deploy the car’s grunt without much wheelspin.
Added rigidity was a must with the added torque and grip, so he opted for the US Car Tool chassis kit. This kit includes a lower radiator support, front/rear torque boxes, a boxed t-cap section with an additional chassis frame member and subframe connectors. He no longer has to worry about the chassis flexing underneath him.
The combination of improved grunt and traction required bigger brakes, so naturally he went with one of the best names in this game: Wilwood’s 6-piston fronts, boasting 12.9” rotors, and 4-piston rears, complete with 12.2” rotors, provide all the deceleration he could wish for.
Inside, the attention to detail is striking. With new carpet, seats and dashboard, it looks almost like it just rolled off the showroom floor. However, some of the retrofits make it even better than that. Vintage Air air conditioning keep the cabin cool on warm Texan afternoons, and Speedhut custom gauges, mounted in custom factory bezels, allow Mike to easily read all the relevant information on country lanes after the sun’s set. Speaking of, it truly is suited to cruising, despite its level of focus. A LizardSkin ceramic coated underchassis keeps the heat out and a RaptorLiner bedlined floor keep the ruckus in the cabin to a minimum. When the Barracuda needs to be thrashed, it does so gladly – but it’s just as capable of cruising in Cadillac-levels of comfort.
Though the 5.7’s 365 wheel horsepower is more than sufficient, Mike plans for a bit more.
“The future holds either a twin-screw supercharger for the 5.7L or a Hellcat 6.2L swap,” he hopes. That said, the car is suited to cruising with its current powerplant, since it can swing 22-25 miles per gallon.
“From the day I took it off of the road in 2014 to the day I drove it as a complete car again was two years and 10 months – a tad longer than I had originally planned. Given my wife and I had bought our first house, I started and finished my MBA and I became a dad during that time, I’d say I still did okay on timing, though!” he concludes. Talk about modesty.
