It’s been over two decades since Chrysler axed the Plymouth brand, with the marque now only living through legendary models like the Barracuda. And Chrysler parent company Stellantis now moving into the electric muscle car era via Dodge, we’ve brought along a Plymouth revival proposal that digitally builds a 2024 Barracuda based on the recent Dodge Charger Daytona SRT EV concept.
While the battery-powered Charger show car previews a 2024 production muscle car, Dodge is giving its current HEMI V8 muscle cars an explosive send-off for the 2023 model year. Among special editions, the return of the Durango Hellcat and others juicy releases, the 2023MY also sees the Dodge introducing the Challenger Convertible.
Last decade, the Challenger Convertible was rumored to revive the Barracuda name
This open-top Challenger is a Dodge-approved conversion rather than a factory model, but this is fantasy fans have had for years, so we’ll take it. Speaking of which, the introduction of a Challenger Convertible used to fuel rumors about the model bringing back the Barracuda name.
That obviously didn’t happen—perhaps moving the iconic badge under the Dodge umbrella would’ve been too much. Nevertheless, as mentioned in the intro, certain enthusiasts now hope Stellantis could bring back at least some parts of the Plymouth heritage once the electric muscle car era kicks off in two years from now.
However, that’s quite a long wait for an idea that may or may not happen, so one of our readers, Ken Stranahan, has taken the matter into his own hands. And with the enthusiast, who is also known as Evil Dr Ken, being active on the computer graphics scene for three decades, the man rendered a Plymouth Barracuda version of the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT EV concept.
The digital 2024 Plymouth Barracuda EV
Now, the rumors mentioned above usually targeted the third-generation Barracuda that left the economy car roots of the badge behind, adopting the new E-Body platform for the 1970 model year, which it shared with the then-new Dodge Challenger.
Nevertheless, Ken is a second-gen Barracuda man—he told us that he owns a 1968 Barracuda Fastback… which isn’t the only one in his family. Riding on the A-body borrowed from the Plymouth Valliant budget offering, this shares the platform with the Dodge Dart (this part of the bloodline is getting aftermarket-revived in restomod form).
And this second iteration, which was offered for 1967-1969, was redesigned to accomodate larger engines, right up to the iconic 426 HEMI. Heck, the drag racing scene even built a mid-engined Barracuda dubbed HEMI Under Glass (it got a blower for 1968!), which could do wheelstands for days, but we digress.
Returning to this… 2024 Plymouth Barracuda EV, the 2D work passes the immaginary standalone model test with flying colors. It’s all thanks to a respectable list of changes compared to its Dodge base, which, by the way, features a STLA Large platform.
The upper front fascia gains the split grille reminiscent of the ’68 Barracuda, albewit with the pair of round taillights paying homage to the soon-to-be-retired Challenger Hellcat—surely, we could find an aero purpose for those headlight intakes.
We’ll quickly go over the fuel cap added to the driver’s side quarter panel—probably a nostalgic charging port now—and move on to the more important part of the transformation. You see, while the Dodge concept already borrowed the fastback roof style from the original 1966 Charger, this virtual version reinterprets the rear pillars, switching to a more retro look that seems to go easy on the eyes.
What about a real-life build?
Now, once Dodge deploys the EV Charger in 2024, we could expect to see an eccentric builder turning this into a Plymouth Barracuda. After all, we’ve seen even wilder conversions in the real world. For one, Robert Selby’s Challenger Hellcat @evildodge is slowly, but steadily, morphing into a Ford Falcon XB in its uber-deep Mad Max cosplay—you’ll find the machine in the Instagram post below.
