Keith Richards has been attracted to this 1968 Plymouth Road Runner since the mid 80’s when he watched it drag racing at the Sears Point International Raceway. A little over 10 years later he purchased it, raced it for many years, then sold it and acquired it again at the end of 2019. If that sounds like a cool Mopar story check out the video I put together for him and read more below.
I first saw this 1968 Plymouth Road Runner race in its Black with 80’s paint scheme in ’84 when I raced a ’77 Camaro in the street class at Sears Point International Raceway. Fast forward to 1998 when looking for a Mopar drag car I got word of a Black ’68 Road Runner drag car sitting in a barn for 10 plus years, which I quickly bought within a week from the Father/Son family who built and raced it back in the day. I went through the motor, transmission, brakes, fuel lines, etc. to make it safe and raced it from 1998 – 2003 exclusively.
In 2003 I bought our 1970 tube chassis Dodge Challenger R/T, (which by the way Ram used for their 2010 Ram campaign), so the Road Runner was raced intermittently and even set up for part time street duty for cruise’s and such while still running 10.40’s with 3” exhaust all the way out the back. In 2008 I built the current 505 pump gas motor that is still in the car untouched since. In 2013 I reluctantly sold it as I needed the space and told the buyer if he ever decided to sell it to call me first. He did call me in September of 2019 and within a month the ’68 Road Runner was back on a truck for the 3300 mile ride back home.
For the six years in his possession the guy had it repainted in a Ford color called “Avalanche Gray”, this included a new passenger quarter panel and fender. A new 727 was built with trans brake. New Calvert split mono leaf springs added to the already there Calvert Racing “CalTraks”, Dedenbear delay box and Strange shocks. Since I got the Plymouth Road Runner back I have redone the 30 year old race car interior with a new headliner, cage paint, aluminum seat etc. I have also just replaced the original front drum brakes with Wilwood discs and will soon be pulling the motor out for a freshen up and repaint the engine bay to match the exterior.
The 11:1 compression 505 motor now has Indy EZ heads Max Wedge ported and a .750-ish lift Comp roller cam with Indy manifold, 1050 Holley Dominator carburetor, Hedman coated headers and pushes around 670 horsepower. My Outlaw Stock Eliminator 1968 Plymouth Road Runner has ran 10.18 @ 130 without traction control on. I run a MSD Grid ignition for traction control which I use to pull out 14* of timing at the hit, it then ramps back to full timing in 2 seconds as with bracket racing 60’ consistency is very important. With that in use it has been low 10.40’s at 129 in bad air.
Did You See David’s 1968 Plymouth Barracuda Build Story?
