By Jeffrey D. Brasie
Images Courtesy of the Corvette Club, Marlin Auto Club and the Cuda Brothers
Published 5.28.2025
The 1965 Barracuda
Trekking through salvage yards, you will find American vehicles with animal names resting in layers of steel, plastic, cloth, and rubber. Notables are the Ford Mustang and Pinto, Mercury Cougar, Buick Wildcat, Chevrolet Impala, Volkswagen Rabbit, and Dodge Ram.
Joining the animals are the birds, insects, and reptiles. The Pontiac Firebird, Studebaker Golden Hawk, Ford Falcon, Buick Skylark, Hudson Hornet, Dodge Super Bee, Plymouth Cricket, Volkswagen Beetle, Plymouth Viper, and Ford Cobra.
Nearby in a pool of oil and water are three American born fish: the Plymouth Barracuda, AMC Marlin, and Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
The Naming of Vehicles: A Bit of Insight
According to a December 2017 Economic Times feature story on vehicle naming, Malini Goyal reported, “In the auto industry where speed, power and passion are all important, model names are as much about science as art.”
Goyal continued, “Some are historical accidents. The iconic Willys Jeep is believed to have been a shorthand for GP or general purpose vehicle but became a cult brand name. Volkswagen has a bias for wind names like Scirocco, Passat, Jetta, while Lamborghini has a preference for bull names. Ford likes names beginning with F like Focus, Fusion, and Fiesta, especially for its core models. Some are simply founders’ fancy like Nissan Fairlady, inspired by the Broadway musical My Fair Lady.”
A September 2021 Your AAA Today website article revealed vehicle naming tended to revolve around animals, nature, numbers and letters, acronyms, abbreviations and amalgamations, and made-up words.
On the made-up words approach, the article continued, “When all else fails, you can always just create a new word, right? At least that’s the thinking behind some car model names. The most famous example is the Camaro. When Chevrolet unveiled its debut pony car in 1966, the company claimed Camaro was a French slang term for friend. It quickly changed its story, instead stating a camaro was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” (The Ford Mustang was the car’s chief competitor.) It was, in fact, neither, just a fictional word picked from a list of 2,000 potential names.”
America’s Fish Cars
The Marlin:
The Marlin Auto Club’s website offers a detailed and insightful history of this Kenosha, Wisconsin vehicle produced for the 1965 to 1967 sales years.
With an austere design budget compared to the Big Three, American Motors’ lead designer, Dick Teague sought to design the company’s personal luxury car combined with the then-popular fastback design. The design team desired to create a vehicle where a mother could pack kids and stuff into a six-seat vehicle, while attracting the male market segment into a sportier vehicle.
Introduced at a January 1964 auto show, the concept vehicle was then called the Tarpon.
The Marlin hit the Rambler (AMC) dealer showrooms in March 1965.
The 1966 AMC Marlin
Preceded by extensive press coverage, the vehicle was featured in 2,400 newspapers.
The first Marlin was built on the Rambler Classic platform and later re-designed on the Ambassador platform. The second platform offered a much roomer interior.
Initially priced at $3,100, the re-designed Ambassador platform lowered the price to $2,601. The lower-priced Marlin offered more options and some of the sleek Ambassador designs, especially with the front-end grill and headlamp design.
The Marlin offered an extensive variety of engine and transmission options including AMC’s twin stick transmission.
Over its multi-year production, nearly 15,000 Marlins were manufactured.
The end of the freeway came for Marlin with competitive designs from the Dodge Charger, Buick Riveria, Oldsmobile Toronado, and Ford Thunderbird.
The Barracuda:
Chrysler Corporation produced the Plymouth Barracuda from 1964 to 1974.
According to the Cuda Brothers website, the vehicle underwent three distinctive design cycles during its 10 model years.
The 1965 Barracuda
Designed to compete in the “pony car” market segment, a total of over 114,800 units were manufactured at assembly plants located in Fenton, Missouri, Detroit, Michigan. Los Angeles, California, and Windsor, Ontario.
During the 1970s, Barracuda made frequent appearances in movie and television shows. In addition, with substantial modifications the vehicle competed in professional drag races, especially with the high-performance Hemi engine.
Initially built on the Plymouth Valiant frame, the Barracuda was offered in fastback, notchback, and convertible designs.
With its fastback design and massive rear glass, the Barracuda was introduced to the public in April 1964 with a base price of $2,512.
The 1965 model offered Chrysler’s slant-six-cylinder engine accompanied by an automatic push button or three-speed manual transmission
In 1969, Chrysler introduced what was then a trendy, mod floral motif vinyl roof and accompanying interior.
Interestingly, the 1971 model was the only Barracuda to offer dual headlamps. All other years offered the traditional two lamp lighting style.
Throughout the 1970s, Chrysler beefed up the Cuda’s power train with engines ranging from 335 to 425 hp. Accompanying these engines were enhanced suspension and steering.
With mileage demands and increasing emission regulations, the Barracuda headed into the ocean’s depths after the 1974 energy crisis.
The Stingray
The Chevrolet Corvette was introduced at the January 1953 General Motors Motorama show in New York City. With acclaimed reception, the vehicle entered full production and showroom sales in the middle of 1953.
The first production year produced slightly over 300 fiberglass body Corvettes. The base price was $3,498.
The Corvette’s early production years began in Flint, Michigan and Saint Louis, Missouri. In 1981 a dedicated Corvette production facility opened in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Near the Kentucky plant that opened in 1994 is the National Corvette Museum.
Since its introduction, the Corvette has undergone eight generations of redesigns.
GM sales information notes that, by the close of 2024, over 1.9 million Corvettes were produced over the past 71 years. In addition, research noted the largest number of registered Corvette owners are located in Michigan. The typical owner is college educated with a mean age of 53.
Historical research revealed the Stingray name prominently appeared in 1959, when GM designed and built a competitive race car with this name plate.
The 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Inspired by GM’s Mako Shark concept car, the Stingray name plate entered the public market with the 1963 model. This dramatic design as a fastback and convertible would carry though into the 1967 model year. Over the four-year production cycle, the engine’s horsepower would leap to 425 hp.
The 1968 to 1972 generation Corvette sported a targa removeable roof. This was an approach designed to address the possible elimination of the convertible, which never occurred.
The emerging emission controls had the 1975 edition chugging along with just 165 hp.
In 1984, Motor Trend cited the Corvette Stingray as the Car of the Year.
Over the next three decades Corvette underwent dramatic exterior changes. The engine horsepower and transmission, suspension, interior and dashboard would also exhibit substantial design changes and improvements.
By 2020 the Corvette’s engine had shifted from the front end to a mid-engine design just behind the driver and passenger’s seats.
If you love the early 1960s Corvettes, you can view on demand the 1960 to 1964 television series Route 66 and feast your eyes on fast moving fiberglass, chrome, and paint.
The Stingray name still exists as the Corvette’s base model. The four current Stingray models list from $68,300 to over $80,000.
Of the American fish-named cars, the Stingray is still manufactured to cruise the nation’s roadways.
Jeffrey D. Brasie is a retired health care CEO. He frequently writes historic feature stories for various Michigan newspapers, magazines, and web sites. As a veteran, he served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. He served on the public affairs staff of the Secretary of the Navy. He grew up in Alpena and resides in suburban Detroit.
