Talk of the Barracuda nameplate being revived dates back to even before Plymouth's demise at the start of the last decade, but the rumors never really got serious until Dodge rolled out its Barracuda concept at the 2007 SEMA show. The concept was based on the current Dodge Challenger and led to rumors that the SRT performance division might launch a hardcore version of the Challenger badged as a Barracuda or possibly even a standalone model based on the next-generation Challenger.
The boss of SRT, Ralph Gilles, has now thrown cold water on the rumors that a modern-day Barracuda is in the works.
"It's something that has grown legs on its own,” he told Automobile Magazine. “It's not something that we have confirmed.”
Admittedly that isn’t an outright denial, but Gilles is reported to have said that a new Barracuda would need to be significantly different from SRT’s current lineup, particularly the Challenger SRT, in order to make sense, and that it would necessitate a new platform.
That doesn’t mean SRT isn’t willing to stray from its Viper supercar and current range of muscle cars, sedans and SUVs, as Gilles is said to have admitted that SRT could build something like the original Neon SRT4 based on the latest Dart if it met the brand's internal performance and quality standards.
