1973 Road Runner coupe

Without a doubt my favorite of all the cars I've owned. Mine was metal flake silver with the 400 cu. in. 4-barrel motor and automatic trans. The file photo above is a spitting image, except mine didn't have a sunroof.

I consider the '73 Road Runner/GTX to be the pinnacle of the Mopar B bodies, and one of the best-looking American cars ever. Yes, the standard motor, a 318 2-barrel, was a bit anemic. But with the available optional motors, they were not exactly slugs! Mine had very brisk acceleration despite the 3.00 rear axle ratio, and could reach 150+ mph if you were willing to over-rev it a bit (something the 383/400 Mopar engine was quite happy to do!). It was also a fine-handling car, and with good tires it's cornering and braking abilities were impressive indeed, for a car of it's size and weight. Hell, they were impressive period!

Fine handling notwithstanding, after owning the car for about a year, I had a slight mishap involving a guard rail. :-(

The left side fender and A-frame,and the central cross-member were a write-off, as was the engine. I hit so hard that the lugs for the motor mounts were snapped right off the engine block. The rebuild was successful, though, and you'd have been hard-pressed to tell that the car had ever been wrecked. Of course, being a dyed-in-the-wool hotrodder, I departed slightly from stock. First, I built a middling-hot 440 mill for the car; forged 10:1 pistons, stage 1 cam, Edelbrock intake, and 650 cfm Holley double-pumper carb. The car was repainted white with black trim, and from a junkyard donor I obtained all the necessary trim to turn it into an ersatz GTX. The finished article was a joy to drive, and it did yeoman service for another couple of years, when I eventually totalled it after hitting loose gravel on a curve.

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