With its 1970 redesign, the Plymouth Barracuda came into its own as a coupe or convertible that married performance and styling like never before. The dramatic sloped roofline carried into the new year, but the E-Body Barracuda no longer had anything other than space in a showroom in common with the workaday Valiant.

It was a move that allowed the car to flourish as a performance model, especially when ordered as a ’Cuda, a carryover name from a trim package offered at the end of the last design’s run. This go-around, the ’Cuda’s engine bay could swallow ever larger V-8s paired with manual and automatic transmissions. Minor updates for 1971 brought a new grille design with four headlights and distinctive undersea-inspired “gills” on the fenders. If any ’Cuda is a perfect example of the breed, it’s the ’71.

This ’71 ’Cuda convertible comes from the second year of production, but only by a hair, as it rolled off the Hamtramck, Michigan, assembly line just before the changeover to the 1972 model year. This example is reportedly the last E-Body convertible built and is said to have been assembled on 22 June 1971.

Plymouth ensured that the ’Cuda convertible would go out in style. The factory-correct Snow White paint, black graphics, and black vinyl power-operated top deliver exactly the contrast Plymouth had in mind with the unusual orange vinyl-upholstered interior. The factory buckets are separated by a black center console with wood trim, providing a sporty look appropriate for a car equipped with the four-barrel, 275-horsepower, 340 cubic-inch V-8. A three-speed TorqueFlight automatic ensures smooth power delivery to the rear wheels, should the owner want to exercise the period-style Goodyear Polyglas rubber. Careful attention has been paid to underhood detailing down to the Mopar-sourced battery.

Other factory equipment retained on this well-optioned example include an AM/FM radio, remote exterior mirrors, and the eye-catching dual-intake sport hood equipped with pins. An attractive luggage rack has been added to the rear deck.