Barracuda With a Bite

Most people say they “dust off” old possessions when they bring them back to life. For Leif Östberg of Hassela, it was more like shaving… After 37 years in the open, the car had grown a coat of moss.

Few cars make as good a gasser as the Plymouth Barracuda. The 1965 model is perfect, with its long, transparent fastback and muscular stance – especially once a pair of fat slicks are tucked under those beautiful hips.

Östberg had no idea when he bought the Barracuda in 1978 as a fresh-faced 20-year-old that 40 years later he would still own the same car, now reborn as a gasser. Back then, at the dealership in the Swedish town Hudiksvall, he was simply thrilled. He had just bought an American V8 car.

“It was a nice cruiser that had been in Östersund before I bought it. Yeah, the body was in good shape. But the original engine and powertrain was gone, and the dealer had replaced it with junk,” Östberg says.

At the time, he didn’t realize just how much of a wreck he had bought. Soon enough, though, he lifted the carpet and discovered Pandora’s box was far from empty. The hope that lay at the bottom of that box wouldn’t be found until 37 years later.

“It had a 273 in it when I bought it. The block was cracked, something I found out later, and someone had patched it with Plastic Padding and paint. The shifter cables were held together with hose clamps, and the rear axle seals were shot. Whenever I filled it with gear oil, it just ran out into the brake drums,” he says with a sigh.

But when you’re 20 years old, such details don’t stop you. You drive anyway. You just add more oil and water when needed – and of course, you repaint the car. It has to look good.

“The car was originally white, but I had it resprayed in metallic purple. I added an L88 scoop and blue flames. Unfortunately, the painter used the wrong clearcoat. After a month, the car was more yellow than white. Before that was fixed, the drivetrain blew up,” he says.

And so the Barracuda sat. Parked for 38 years. Outside, on a tractor trailer. Until algae and moss had grown over it.

“In the fall of 2015, I finally got started. The idea was born a little earlier, though. My whole life I had been building rat rods, you know – rough builds. But there were fewer and fewer places to run those cars on the strip. And since I’ve been interested in drag racing since the ’70s, I started hanging out at Sättna, the Sundsvall dragstrip that was built about 12 years ago – Sweden’s only privately owned dragstrip. I became friends with Janne Bergdahl and Frasse, who ran vintage drag racing. They kept saying, ‘Build a car too.’ At first, I wasn’t sold on the idea. But then I remembered – I have a Barracuda!”

There was no proper place to build the gasser. Östberg laid plywood sheets over the gravel floor of his barn so he could at least roll in a cart and jack under the car. Then he stripped it down to bare metal.

“I think it was 25 below zero when I was lying under the car. But cold doesn’t bother me. I used to run sled dogs and love being outdoors. Besides, I usually keep my projects secret. Since I had only built rat rods before, most people were shocked when I suddenly showed up with a painted car. Sure, people had heard rumors, but no one knew what I was actually building,” he says with a grin.

There is much to say about this Barracuda gasser, but the drivetrain grabs your attention first. It originally had a mild 360, but today a much wilder 340 cui sits in its place. Behind it is an A833 four-speed manual, converted into a HEMI^® box by Joel Skoglund of small town Nora. Out back sits an 8¾ rear axle with a spool and 4.56:1 gears.

During the photo shoot, I notice the headers – four pipes exiting in a square out of the front fenders. They look unusual, so I ask him about them.

“I was looking for fenderwell headers. But I can tell you, those are not easy to find for a small block in an A-body. There just aren’t many race parts for that combo. So I bought a tubing bender at Biltema and two stainless pipes and went to work. This is the result,” Östberg says.

Other pipes worth noting are, of course, the Hilborn injection stacks. Everyone loves a forest of trumpets sticking out of the hood. That never gets old.

“The year before I bought the 340, a buddy offered me a Hilborn setup. I didn’t think too much about it at first, other than that I wanted it – and that Hilborn parts for Chrysler small blocks are impossible to find today. So I started saving up a little money and moved on,” he says.

Eventually, he got the 340 after a long back-and-forth, and then considered adding a blower.

“But the 340 has high compression, and that doesn’t work well with a supercharger. So I went back to my buddy pretty quick. He sat there fidgeting for a long while and finally said, ‘Well, I guess I need at least 10,000 kronor for the injection.’ I had expected twice that. You can imagine how fast I paid him,” he says with a laugh.

The Hilborn setup came complete with a distributor and a fuel pump driven off the distributor shaft. Roland Nilsson of Järvsö, who has worked with injection systems since the 1970s, reconfigured it for methanol since it had previously run on gasoline.

“The injection hadn’t been used since the mid-’80s, when it was on a fuel altered called Bezerk here in Sundsvall. The old stacks weren’t right, so I bought new ones. Twelve inches tall. They have to stick out of the hood,” Östberg says firmly.

We then talk about protecting the stacks. If it rains, you don’t want the engine filling with water. Some use tennis balls. Others use billiard or baseballs.

Östberg? He uses bocce balls. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

Before wrapping up – this time at least, since Östberg is a pleasant guy to talk with – I ask about the car’s name. It’s not exactly mysterious, but I want to hear his story.

“I often get ideas at night. Suddenly, I woke up and realized the car had to be called ‘Sharp Teeth.’ A Barracuda has razor-sharp teeth. Same with the spiked pattern on the roof and door panels. I was lying in bed the next morning thinking about it. Looked out the window… I had spiked curtains. That did it. I had to buy new curtains for the bedroom,” he says.