Greetings fellow Web Riders, Big_Blocker here for a brand-spanking new installment of Muscle Car of the Week. Now contrary to most if not all of the previous installments, the focus of this week’s featured car is not centered on high displacement and torque numbers. No, this week we are going to take a look at a car that was created for road racing, a high revving small block Mopar: the 1970 Plymouth Cuda AAR. Hit the jump for the rest of the story.

Now many people who do not know much about muscle cars assume that they were nothing but heavy steel sleds loaded to the brim with straight line horsepower with no ability to corner. However, people who followed the American road racing circuits of the late 1960’s will know that Detroit built small block screamers that were capable of cornering with the best of them. The creation of the AAR can be attributed to America’s growing interest in road racing stemming from several factory-backed teams during that time. In fact, the AAR in Cuda’s name is an abbreviation for All American Racing. During the late 1960’s America was hungry for performance of all kinds be it in the form of a budget muscle car, full-size luxury car or muscle truck. And as anyone who has read the previous installment on the 1969 Dodge Daytona will know, in order to race a car in a series such as the SCCA’s Trans Am series, Chrysler had to build at least 500 of them as per the rules. So, with their newly redesigned E-Body platform (Plymouth had the Cuda, Dodge the Challenger) Chrysler set out to make a car that could handle the twists and turns of a Trans Am and still be streetable.

Instead of dropping a big block motor between the fenders of the Cuda, Plymouth lowered a slender 340 cubic inch V8 with three two barrel carburetors bolted to the intake manifold known as the Six Barrel setup. Some may wonder how a 340 small block would compete on the street even though it had one hell of an inlet system with the triple Holley’s, and you would have a valid point seeing as the 340 only made 290 horsepower and 340 pound feet of torque. Sure, when you stack a 440 Mopar, 428 Cobra Jet or an SS396 against a 340, the 340 should get dominated. However, the 340 gets a step up on the big blocks because of it’s weight. A 1970 Plymouth AAR fully equipped weighed in at just over 3,500 pounds, at least 150 pounds less than the mighty hemi. And that is not including the additional weight the Hemi and other big blocks were required to be equipped with in the form of heavy duty suspension and beefy gearboxes to handle all that torque.

Plymouth finished out the package with several high impact colors and a matte black finish on the hood, roof and decklid. Oh and speaking of the hood, it was all fiberglass to keep front end weight down even more. Perhaps the most noticeable thing on this car (and my personal favorite) is the way the exhaust exits the engine via trumpet-tipped pipes mounted in front of the rear tires just like in actual Trans Am racers….must have made for one sweet and loud experience. In its only production year the AAR Cuda sold 2,724 units making them extremely rare, so remember if ever scouting for an old car and you see a 340 small block with a longer than usual air cleaner, you may have stumbled upon one of the rarest E-Body Mopars of all time. Hope you enjoyed it, Big_Blocker signing off.