Junkyard Crawl - '69 383 Road Runner Found At DVAP

Missing its 335hp 383 engine and heavy-duty 727 TorqueFlite transmission, this one has been carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by Wile E. Coyote. We can only hope the inner fender, door frame, and other metal chunks have gone toward the revival of some other crashed or rusted Plymouth B-Body.

Missing its 335hp 383 engine and heavy-duty 727 TorqueFlite transmission, this one has bee

Spotting a Plymouth Road Runner-or any blue-chip muscle machine-in the junkyard is sad and exciting at the same time. The sad part is realizing that a once-proud tire burner is a step closer to the crusher. The exciting part is the simple thrill of discovering a diamond in the dust. Either way, hope springs eternal that some savvy hunter-never us-will end up catching the prey and saving it for restoration before things get too far out of control. Unfortunately, for the '69 383 Road Runner coupe shown here at Desert Valley Auto Parts in Phoenix (dvap.com; 800/905-8024), any hope of resurrection is highly unlikely. But we can still dive in for a last look.

Groovy Factoids
• In 1969 Motor Trend magazine awarded its Car of the Year award to the Plymouth Road Runner, saying, "The basic concept of simplicity and low price is what makes it a winner."
• The special Road Runner beep-beep horn was painted black in 1968, then light purple in 1969.

The fender tag went missing with the left-front corner, but we can still learn from the VIN. It reads: R = Plymouth Belvedere/Satellite, M = Road Runner, 21 = two-door sedan, H = 383 four-barrel, 9 = '69 model year, E = Los Angeles, California, assembly plant, 123958 = sequence number. If this was a Hemi car, the engine code would be a J.
The fender tag went missing with the left-front corner, but we can still learn from the VI
Though a four-speed manual transmission was standard RR equipment, the column shifter and automatic-only wide-pad brake pedal show the original buyer paid an extra $39.30 for the heavy-duty TorqueFlite automatic. Remnants of underdash ducting and the A/C-specific firewall stamping tell us this one was also ordered with air conditioning. A $357.65 option, A/C added more than 10 percent to the Road Runner coupe's $3,077 base price. For comparison, the base prices of the Road Runner RM23 hardtop (no pillar) and new-for-'69 RM27 convertible were $3,215 and $3,456, respectively. Street Hemi buyers coughed up a hefty $813.45 for the security of doomsday power.
Though a four-speed manual transmission was standard RR equipment, the column shifter and
Judging from the amount of metal sliced off this thing, it must have been a pretty clean car since there's no demand for rusty patch panels. Check out the dual exhaust and 83/4 rear axle. We didn't check for a Sure Grip pig, but the 11-inch manual drum brakes are still present.
Judging from the amount of metal sliced off this thing, it must have been a pretty clean c