Interesting that the Barracuda came only from Plymouth and not from its stablemate Dodge as well. By 1965, the Valiant and Dart were becoming very different cars but with basically the same underpinnings. The longer wheelbase Dart may have been a better starting point, but looking at the Valiant Hardtop, you can see the way Plymouth developed the Barracuda. I reckon funds would have been extremely tight after the 1962 debacle, with everything centred on the bigger Plymouths and Dodges; they even had to cobble up the old Chrysler body to create the Dodge 880 to help generate showroom traffic. It wasn't any easy time for Chrysler in those years.