IN OUR day-to-day travels we come across all kinds of cool rides, and while we were grabbing some fittings for a Carnage project we stumbled across this wild big-block Plymouth Barracuda at QuickBitz in South Dandenong.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen this particular car. We first spotted Craig’s Barracuda at Chryslers On The Murray when it was first finished. Back then it was sporting the ProCharger and big-block stroker combo, but sans intercooler.

After trialling same water/meth injection to try and control detonation, they switched to a Plazmaman water-to-air set-up on the advice of Michael from QuickBitz. This has seen the intake temps drop from north of 100 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees and below – a much more manageable figure.

The combo itself is a 440ci Chrysler big-block stroked out to 500 cubes with alloy heads and an Edelbrock Pro-Flo XT EFI intake, with an F1 ProCharger handling the boost side of the equation. Engine management in the form of a Haltech Platinum Sport 2000 controls the show, and there’s a flex-fuel sensor on board to handle the switch from premium unleaded to E85.

On 98-octane unleaded the big-block ’Cuda punched out a respectable 657hp at the hubs, and with E85 on board the power stepped up to 714rwhp without needing to take the revs north of 5750rpm.

“The limiting factory with this combo is the factory cast-iron block and standard two-bolt main caps,” Michael from QuickBitz says. “If it had steel caps or an aftermarket block we could probably push it a bit harder, but we’re taking it pretty easy with the timing and revs.”

Over 700hp at the rear end and they’re taking it easy! Not bad. One thing is for sure: this Mopar is going to be a beast on the street.