This is a brief history on the E-Body. It comes from my expirence and reading, so if you find anything wrong please, tell me.
The "pony car" should have been called the "fish car". The 1964 1/2 Plymouth Barracuda beat the Mustang to the market by 2 weeks. But as fate would have it, the Mustang took the name. The original Barracuda didn't fair very well compared to the Mustang. Personally, I think the Mustang just had a better body than the Barracuda. The funny thing is, the Mustang was based on the mundane Ford Falcon chassis, as the Barracuda was based on the Valiant chassis. I think Ford just did a better job intergrating the platform. Dodge had been offered the idea of the pony car, simillar to the Barracuda, but decided on doing a different car, one that ended up being the Charger. Just thank god that didn't happen. I figure that the Barracuda was based on the Valiant, do you think that the Dodge version of a pony car would have been based on the Dart?!?!
In 1967, the Barracuda came out with a all new body. I think that this body was a terrific advancement over the first generation Barracuda, but was still lacking. First, the Chrysler big block was a snug fit. With the Super stock Hemi Barracuda's of 1968, they had to move the battery to the trunk to get the engine to fit. This would all be fixed when the all new Barracuda of 1970 would come about.
In 1967, it was time to start designing a new body for the Barracuda. At the same time, Dodge finally decided that they needed a Pony car. (One note: I did read that Plymouth took all of the engineering of the Challenger and basicly stole it for the 1970 Barracuda, but I haven't confirmed this). The formost on the minds of the designers was that EVERY engine Chrysler made had to fit in the engine bay with there still being room for accesorys like power brakes and steering. Well, this being Chrysler and all, decided that the B-Body engine bay would be a great fit. To get it to fit, they would have to design a brand new chassis, so the E-Body was born.
I think that the lines of the E-Body were the best of any car. You gotta love the rocker panel gills on the 1970 'Cuda's and the fender gills of the 1971 'Cudas. They just scream "fish". This was all part of the designers vison. They hunched the back of the car up as high as they could, while pulling in the rear valance in as far as they could get it (in a side note, that is why E-Body trunks and quarters always rust!)
The Challenger also had very good lines. It had more of a pronounced character line down the side. It is also liked by a lot of people due to the fact that it was a bit more upscale than the Plymouth version. It also had less pronouced lines than the 'Cuda, which makes it less flashy. If you wanted sport, you got a 'Cuda. If you wanted luxury, you got the Challenger.
