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1969 Plymouth Road Runner

1969 Plymouth Road Runner - Junkyard Crawl

Road Runner Blues
By Steve Magnante
Photography by Steve Magnante
1969 Plymouth Road Runner
Missing its 335hp 383 engine... 
   
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1969 Plymouth Road Runner
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.
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.

1969 Plymouth Road Runner
The fender tag went missing... 
   
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1969 Plymouth Road Runner
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.
1969 Plymouth Road Runner
Though a four-speed manual... 
   
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1969 Plymouth Road Runner
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.
1969 Plymouth Road Runner
Judging from the amount of... 
   
  read full caption
1969 Plymouth Road Runner
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.

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