Hot Wheels® Newsletter - Digital Car Catalog & Collection Management

1968 Custom Barracuda

General information

Casting : Custom Barracuda

Years of Production

1968-1970

Country of Origin

US and HK

Casting Variations

US vs. HK production, Detailed Below
Hybrids of US and HK Parts are known

Interior Colors:

US Interior Colors: white, grey bone, and dark
HK Interior Colors: white, brown, dark grey, silver, and light purple

US - Clear Glass
HK - Blue Glass

Color chart

US COLORS:	COMMENTS:
purple	common
blue	common
green	common
aqua	common
red	hard to find
gold	hard to find
copper/brown	hard to find
light blue	hard to find
antifreeze	hard to find
creamy pink	hard to find
rose	very rare
olive	very rare
orange	very rare (if it exists)
HK COLORS:	COMMENTS:
aqua	common
purple	common
copper	common
green	common
blue	common
red	hard to find
light blue	hard to find
creamy pink	hard to find
orange	rare
olive	very rare
gold	very rare (if it exists)
antifreeze	very rare (if it exists)
HYBRID COLORS:	COMMENTS:
antifreeze	hard to find
purple	hard to find
rose	hard to find
gold	rare
aqua	rare
blue	rare
green	very rare
orange	very rare

Similar Castings:

1970 King Cuda

Comments:

The Custom Barracuda was based on the 1967 Plymouth Barracuda two-door fastback coupe.

1967 Plymouth Barracuda Fastback

The 1967 Barracuda was heavily revised from 1966 with Coke-bottle side contours, new front and rear ends, a concave rear deck panel, wider wheel openings and curved
side glass. The rear portion of the roof on the fastback coupe was more streamlined, and the back glass, raked at a substantially horizontal angle, was much smaller
compared with that of the previous model. Also, the use of chrome trim on the external sheet metal was more restrained. The slant-6 was the base engine, the V8 options
ranged from the 2 and 4 barrel versions of the 273 ci. to a seldom-ordered 383 ci. "B" big-block, rated at 280 bhp, the latter available only with the Formula S package.

1968 Custom Barracuda: US (L) : Hong Kong (R)

The body castings of the two versions of the Custom Barracudas are largely indistinguishable and all have bearing type wheels.

1968 Custom Barracuda: US (L) : Hong Kong (R)

The most prominent difference is the shape of the "power bulges" on the hood with the HK version, being longer and extending almost the full length of the hood.

1968 Custom Barracuda: US (L) : Hong Kong (R)

The differences between the front and rear of the two of the US and HK versions is not very significant.

1968 Custom Barracuda: US (L) : Hong Kong (R)

The US version of the interior features a steering wheel which is molded as part of the dashboard.
The Hong Kong version has separate steering wheel and lacks a dashboard.

1968 Custom Barracuda: US (L) : Hong Kong (R)

The absence of mechanical detail on the US version is noteworthy and the HK casting includes the typical suspension holes associated with all early HK castings.
The bases are interchangeable with the two types of bodies which as resulted in mixtures of parts from both factories that are known as "Hybrids".

1968 Custom Barracuda Hybrids

A very collectible variation, "hybrid" Custom Barracudas have a US body, windshield and interior, but a HK base. A few hybrids have been found with HK blue-tinted
windshields. Hybrids are presumed to be due to tooling problems and/or material shortages which resulted in the need to have HK bases shipped to the US plant for
assembly, probably on the later-run castings. Hybrids have been found in multiple colors including gold, antifreeze, green, aqua, blue, purple and rose.

1968 Custom Barracuda Rainbow

The Custom Barracuda was produced in a plethora of colors, including second generation colors yellow, magenta and hot pink.

PREPRODUCTION

A prototype or paint sample of the Custom Barracuda has survived from the production days.