1965 Plymouth Barracuda

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. It's been a couple months since we last saw a Chrysler A body in this series, which means we're due. Instead of a Valiant or Dart, however, we're going with the third DOTS Plymouth Barracuda (after this '65 and this '67).

The A-body Barracuda (not to be confused with the 1970-74 E-body versions) started out as a Valiant with a huge fastback rear window. Most of the '65s were powered by the super-indestructo Slant Six, but you could also get a 273 V8 by handing a few extra bucks to your friendly Plymouth dealer.

This one is pretty nice, and it still gets used as transportation. I often see it parked next to the Corolla FX16, and I suspect both cars belong to the same household.

It wasn't quite as sporty-looking as the hot new Mustang, but the price was pretty good: $2,535 with the V8 versus $2,751 for the Mustang fastback with the 289 V8.