Was my CUDA the last one made... ??

[lastCUDA]

It was the year the market went nuts, the 1st time, 1979 or 1980 ??
Car has less than 500 miles on it. The 2nd owner Bob Jones of Pittsburgh, & me the 3rd owner, never had the car on the street & always in a garage. When I sold it to Roy, the 4th & present owner, it was as clean, if not cleaner looking than new. I had heard that Roy never takes it out of the garage either ??

[tttaziz]

Great car, great story.

The first time the muscle car market really went nuts was 1989-1990.  That was probably the first time you saw Hemi cars go to $100,000+.  The market cooled in the early 90s then took off again.

The March 13 build date sounds a little early for end of production, but maybe with gas prices and availability the way it was then.  I'd think someone on the board should know about when '74 production ended.

[lastCUDA]

There's more....
Two months after I took delivery of the 1974 There was an ad in the paper for a 1970 HEMICUDA for $1,995. I bought it. He thought the motor was toast & sold it real quick to me, as I was the 1st one to answer his ad. Wrong plugs in it,  & thermostat wouldn't open, so it would overheat real fast. A steal for $1,995.  A short time later, the state of PA said everycar had to be insured. I could only afford to insure one car. So, I kept the best of both, I swap drivetrains. Yes I did, I put the HEMI, automatic trans, 4.10 dana & the shaker hood into the 1974 & kept it. The 1970 HEMICUDA 3 on the tree with bench seat got the 360, 4speed, 3.55 rear. Had to weld in a shifter tunnel & swap out all the petals. What I pain, when your young & dumb... I sold the 70' to a friend. So, I had myself a 1974 black HEMICUDA with an orange shaker hood. I even took it in under factory warranty to have a bad window cranking part replaced. The dealer was Tom Myl Plymouth in Pittsburgh where I bought my 74'. Tom Myl raced a 70'  SS/DA HEMICUDA at that time & somehow he had a spare AAR hood, so... I ditched the heavy shaker hood setup for the lightlight AAR hood. Like I said before, young & dumb... The 70' HEMICUDA body years later landed in Erie, PA & the new owner was restoring it, He tracked me down, & I still had the automatic with the correct numbers stamped on it. Trans was wornout, put he was happy as can be to get the case.

[Alaskan_TA]

Your old Cuda BS23L4B336441 was owned by Dave McElrath of Pittsburg PA back in 1982 and 1983. I do not know if he still has it, does the name sound familiar? Are you Dave maybe? If so your birthday is just over a month away. 

It did have a Hemi and a Dana in it at the time.

As far as being the last Cuda made, no, it was not. The highest 1974 Cuda VIN that I have on file so far ends in 354897.

T/Ake care,
Barry

[lastCUDA]

WoW,
That's me, & my birthday is one month away...
So, the guy I sold the 74' too was wrong, close but no cigar.
Maybe it was the last 'ordered-to-customer-specs' car ??
Is there a 'date' that, is known to be the last 'E' body down the line, in any of the books out there ?

Dave

[lastCUDA]

OK,
I did a little searching & found out that I sold the 74' to Wayne Bender in Leechburg, PA. I found an old time-slip with his name & plate # on it. His PA plate is 'CUUUUDA'.I'm going to send this 74' fender tag to him, I bet he'll be happy.
I had one other cool 'E' body. I bought a 1970 black on black HEMI Challenger automatic with a cracked-up motor due to pure H2O left in the HEMI in the winter. Harold Delastine of Washington, PA  bought it from me in the late 70's.  He put it back together & took 1st place at the 1st local show he went to back in the early 80's. I belive  too that it has been sitting in a garage the past 25 years.

Dave

[Johnny Cuda]

This is a very interesting thread. Which brings about a question. How does one go about finding the history of their car.  :dontknow:

[Alaskan_TA]

Hey Dave,
Very cool. Do you remember joining SIAC? That is how I knew about your '74. Another former SIAC member by the name of Tom Quadrini saved the original membership forms from being tossed out. He let Jeff Bangert borrow them to make copies and Jeff passed them on to me. Since then, I have been able to mail out close to 300 of them to the current owners of the cars, so it has helped a lot of people with their prior owner histories.

There are a lot of them still waiting to be claimed as well, you can view the lists in the "found" section of www.hamtramck-historical.com .

Happy early birthday.  :beer:

Headway989, post or email the VIN to me and I will check my files for you. Anything I have is free to the owner of the car with proof of ownership.

T/Ake care,
Barry Washington

[Street_Challenged73]

Wow, I found this thread to be quite interesting.   It's pretty cool what you can find out via the Internet about your previous car owners, not to mention it's pretty darn cool people like Barry and Jeff take the time to help other enthusiasts track down all their cars original documentation.  LastCuda, if I haven't said this before, welcome to the board and that history line you posted is unreal!

[Johnny Cuda]

 

[Dfr360cuda]

Dave
I remember your car
I had (still have) a black 74 with 360 and 4 speed like yours.
You lived in Dormont by the stadium
I lived in Dormont by the middle school.
I'm going to check my VIN tomorrow

 

[SirRalliart]

The OP got me curious and I took a quick glance at my tag:  321 and 348928

It's a '74 Cuda 360 4-spd in Deep Sherwood and a Canandian car.   

I didn't know that they stopped making Cuda's before the year ended.  Interesting.  Probably why they only made 398 of these 360 4-spd Cuda's.

I'm now curious as to the last production date of the Cuda.

[CUDAMAN1970]

My 74 Barracuda is 354685 - built March of 74, close to the end of production.  I believe this topic has come up for discussion before and there were some cars built in April and maybe May? 

The last cuda/barracuda has not been determined but I seem to remember an article in one of the mopar magazines about the last 74 Challenger.

[Dfr360cuda]

Mine... 360 w/ 4 speed.
Second owner since June 1978.
BS23L4B2947**
My brother ended up buying the house next to the first owner.
There was a third black 360 4 speed car in the area back then too. 
Bob Miller from Castle Shannon.
I just put new Dougs ceramic headers on.
Working on front end now (new control arms, ball joints, tie rod ends, etc ).
Should hit the streets this spring.

 

[73440]

OK, who went to Keystone Oaks?