The heyday of the muscle car era was the late 1960s, and the Plymouth Road Runner flourished during the 1968-70 period of the car. But demand declined in the early 1970s, and in 1974 Plymouth only sold 1/8 as many as they had at the peak. One of the rarest was the ’74 with the GTX option, which accounted for just 386 units. The seller has one of these project cars, but its 440 cubic inch V8 has taken flight. Located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, this once mighty Mopar is available here on craigslist for $13,500 CDN or $12,000 USD.
Plymouth treated its B-bodies to a new design in 1971 and a styling refresh against that two years later. The fuselage look began to wane, as did buyers due to rising insurance costs, higher fuel prices, and market saturation (the muscle car movement was a decade old by 1974). The ’74 Road Runner had a lowly 318 V8 as standard, but if you went with the fancy GTX package with a 440 and automatic transmission, you got more power (though emissions constricted). These vehicles had become a shadow of their former selves from six years before.
Since most of the photos provided show this Road Runner on the back of a trailer, the assumption is this was a barn find. We’re not sure if the car is intact given the lack of some trim. Also, the 440 has been extracted, but we’re told a truck 440 is there in its place (not according to the photos). While we see red paint with a white vinyl roof and white stripes, the seller’s language suggests a color combo change was made at some point.
The Plymouth’s numbers-matching transmission has survived and is somewhere. The fuel source is described as “hybrid,” but there’s nothing to consume any kind of fuel here. Rust may be at a minimum given that the floors and trunk are said to be good. The fender tag has been removed and comes with the car, but you might want to do some verification. The seller is not opposed to trades and may even carry a loan for a few months. Considering the rarity of a 1974 GTX, would you restore this one? BTW, score another tip for “Curvette”!
Curvette has eyes all over the map.
Its a tad pricey though..
Rare, yes. Rough, yes. Overpriced for its condition, yes. If this year GTX is someone’s dream car, it might be worth restoring, otherwise keep looking.
Steve R
the last of
Anyone paying more than scrap price, for basically just a VIN is all I see here, really needs their head checked. Because they ARE THE PROBLEM that the classic car market has turned into. These classic cars are nothing special. ESPECIALLY once you get past like 1971.
Reality people, they ride like 💩, handle like💩, preform like💩, comfort of 💩and in most cases smell like… Take a guess, 💩 which this particular one I’ll bet it does.
And Any, except super economic, modern 4 cylinder will kick their 🫏 in every metric while getting 30+ mpg. Literally the ONLY THING the classic has is looks over the modern all lookalike eggs .
Like wake up. And unless you can do 100% of the work yourself, and 99% cannot, if you think your going to do a complete restoration and flip it for profit. Be ready to lose AT LEAST 15000 to 20,000 dollars. And that’s on a good day at the best auction. And even more is realistic.
So dear shit up and take my daddy’s credit card club. Please leave the classic market alone so a dad and kids who actually like working on cars to keep can return to a sane affordable market.
Nice find! My father and I restored together and have a 1969 GTX with the 440 super commando, a 1972 roadrunner as well. And outside of mopar we have a 55 belair 2 door non post car and a 65 chevelle SS but nothing compares to the GTX
Somethings off, one picture shows the white half top then another its gone…stripes arent original so its been bondo’d and puttied…missing the white interior and the fender mounted turn signals and EVERY BODY PANEL is rusted except for where bondo is you can see the rear quarter is wavy!
For fun i looked it up…another 2500 or more in shipping from Canada …only worth MAYBE 30k when finished…its junk! Part it out now
Good eye on the missing vinyl!
Been looking at those same pictures again and I’m wondering if the owner yanked the vinyl off(which was probably rotten anyway) and saw something really bad, bad enough to be a deal breaker and persuade him to put the car up for sale?
No motor no numbers.
Ridiculous ask of 12g’s. For a shell at that. Can’t save em all if you’re realistic. C’mon
There only thing that made this a desirable car was yanked out ages ago and the seller is supplying a truck motor as a substitute that he didn’t bother to include pictures of,….
Floor boards and trunk are supposd to be solid but images arn’t included of those either although images Are included of the drivers rear shock and a replacement gas tank; in addition to which there is a spot on the drivers floor board where it looks like someone tore the rug to take a look at the floor board,…
Soo many obvious questions arising from this one that a few simple phtos Could have dealt with that I would have to give it a hard pass at the asking price.
And WHAT is going on with that wire close line hanging out of the drivers front wheel well? It shows up in the opposite wheel well, is it holding the front end of the car together???
Looks like the stripe was the inspiration for the Starsky and Hutch stripe!
the I really don’t want to sell price LOL
another flipper. 12k for a rusted missing the o/e motor. but cut that number in 1/2. i can find better ways to spend 12k and its not on this.
Not much there for 12k, not a highly desirable or popular model to dump a ton of time and money into.
Bet it was really pretty back in ‘74. I don’t know what it is, but this era of Mopar B body is always too rough and way overpriced. Or in decent shape, grandma optioned and still too expensive.
I’ll go out on a limb and say at least some of the trim appears to be there and looks decent. Less of a rusty basket case than usual and doesn’t look full of Bondo to me. Looks like a $3000 project car if you’re after one, don’t care about numbers matching and doing your own work.
I believe we’re seeing at least 2 different cars
What John said. I worked on these cars NEW. Horrible riding, built like crap, lousy gas mileage, rotted out in 5 years. End of story.
Hard Pass
That’s an expensive pile of scrap metal for $13,000