The batch of 1970 ‘Cudas we recently wrote about in a Muscle Car Campy video featured the A22 bumper package. There’s some interesting quirks about them, so let’s explore them a little more.
The 1968 Pontiac GTO was the first car from Detroit to feature a monochromatic scheme, in this case an Endura front bumper blended nicely with the body. For 1969, the Chevrolet Camaro featured a body-colored bumper as an option. Plymouth certainly took notice of these when preparing the redesigned Barracuda for 1970.
Code A21 was the Elastomeric front bumper option, which included a body-colored front bumper, body-colored remote mirrors, and belt moldings (which were standard on the ‘Cuda and Gran Coupe). While colored racing mirrors were available in all colors available at the start of production, A21-equipped cars were only available in “EB5” Blue Fire metallic, “FC7” In Violet metallic, “FE5” Rallye Red, “EF8” Ivy Green metallic, “FJ5” Limelight, “FK5” Deep Burnt Orange metallic, “EW1” Alpine White, “TX9” Black Velvet, and “FY1” Lemon Twist. (Apparently, it seems there’s a run of AAR’Cudas with just one racing mirror, so this doesn’t appear to be cast in stone.)
Code A22 was the same package but included an Elastomeric rear bumper plus extra trim: lower deck lid moldings with black paint fill. Both are distinctive feature of ‘Cudas but were added to Barracudas and Gran Coupes built with A22. Interestingly, at the start of production, Plymouth only offered the A22 package in Rallye Red. According to a December 15, 1969 Product Information Bulletin, the A22 package was expanded to include eight additional rear-colored bumpers, bringing the total to nine—in line with the available colors for A21. This was to be effective with January 5, 1970 production.
This may explain why most A22 Barracudas you see are Rallye Red.