When you look at Chaz Houser’s ‘68 Barracuda, you’d never think it started out as a rusted out piece of junk. According to owner Chaz Houser, “It was either throw it out or turn it into a race car.” Looking at it today, it’s obvious that Chaz made a good choice. “It’s fun, I’m a Ford guy, but I became a Mopar guy in a hurry. All my other cars are Fords, but this is a Mopar and my dad’s a Mopar nut, so we figured we’d do something with it or it was time to throw it away.”

While the car sounds and appears extremely powerful, it is, in fact, powered by a normal 340 engine backed by a Torqueflite 904 automatic transmission and an 8 ¾ rear with 4.86 gears inside. According to Chaz, “It works good for what it is. Nothing radical has been done to the engine, it came out of a street car.” On this day, the car had recorded a best of a 12.95 E.T., a good time for what is basically a street engine. It’s also not a lightweight race car. Overall, it weighs just shy of 3000 lbs. Chaz has owned the car for about 11 years, but a good portion of that time, “it sat out in back of my garage. The only reason we bought it was for the brakes and the rear axle for my dad’s Duster. When it became time to throw it away, we decided to make a race car out of it and resurrected it.” The complete car that appears on the track today started out anything but that. Chaz added, “When I got it there was no front end on it. Just doors and quarters and you could see through the quarters.” Once assembled as a complete car, it made it to the track, pretty much flying under the radar because the patchwork of parts and bodywork left it nothing special to look at. That was about to change. Chaz painted the car over the winter, and he shared that it took “forever” to do the stripes, taking about 5 hours alone just to tape them off, instead of taking the easy way out and getting vinyl graphics. “I would’ve liked to have put more time into it, but I was running out of time.” As for what it’s like on the track, “It’s a fun toy. It puts a smile on my face. Nobody really looked at it last year when it was yellow and beat down (before it was painted). Keep an eye out for this Barracuda when you’re at the track. It’s a good example of what a “resurrected” car can look like with hard work and elbow grease.