Try this exercise: write a completely fictional listing for an amazing muscle car. First of all, make it a Mopar with Hemi power; nothing’s more epic than popping the hood and seeing that Elephant motor with the plug wires going through the valve covers and the dual four-barrel carbs. What if it were low miles? Would folks believe 20,000 miles? What if it spent most of its life “in a museum” and accumulated a mere 1,353 miles? What? That is the completely non-fictional story on this amazing green machine! The 1969 Plymouth Road Runner, complete with a factory-original 426 cid (7.0L) engine made famous by its hemispherical combustion chambers, comes to market as a three-owner sub-2000-mile beauty wearing one re-paint but almost completely as delivered by Plymouth. The listing here on Silverstone Motorcars asks $129,900 for this gorgeous Hemi Road Runner located in North Andover, Massachusetts. Read more of this car’s amazing story below!
Complex and costly, Chrysler’s Hemi goes all-out in the name of performance. Twin rocker arms flank the center-spark design of the hemispherical combustion chamber, rendering a truly unique valve cover. Ford’s crazy 427 Cammer may rival the Street Hemi’s technology, but anyone willing to pay for one could order a Hemi in numerous Chrysler models, including a handful of sedans! That availability helped amortize the Hemi’s cost, and the rest is history. Like several heavy-hitting engines of its day, the Hemi’s horsepower rating topped the charts at a barely-insurable 425. True power ratings rose higher at the dyno.
Mopar fans will immediately spot the oversized rear wheels. Those and 4.10 gears found their way into this powerful Plymouth, but the original gear set and wheels come with the sale. After a mere 382 miles, perhaps in quarter-mile increments, the original owner committed the Road Runner to a museum in Texas where it stayed until 1995! By that time it was already an amazing and untouchable time-capsule and made its way to New England where it has remained. Tip your hat to the second owner who went crazy and ran the odometer up to 1180. The third owner added the remaining miles, and you can pick up the story from there.
The all-green color scheme is not for everyone, but who cares about color on a sub-2000-mile muscle car? The bench seat and column shift may seem completely insane on a wrecking ball of a car like this, but that 727 automatic can take a beating, and the bench seat is perfect for cruising with that special someone under your arm. Unless I had its twin as a driver, I could never one a car like this. It’s a full-sized Matchbox car, a possession that you take out carefully once in a while, looking at it all over, gently moving it around, then put it back in its box. How would you write the next chapter of this car’s story?
Just about the crème de la crème of muscle cars. Too expensive to flog it and rack up the miles, so it’s probably destined to be a trailer queen or parked in another car museum. Too expensive for me by quite a bit but I’m OK with that; I’m happy with the cars I have that I can drive anytime I want and not be terrified of an errant stone chipping the paint.
It’s certainly worth the asking price and unless you want to throw caution to the wind and start using it it’s value will diminish. How much would it diminish? Not as much as others if the mileage is kept reasonable I think one could really have fun. Just look at how many luxury cars cost over 100K and 5 years later they are worth 20K. That wouldn’t happen here so I say buy it and enjoy the car show circuit and club meets or take it for a drive on a crisp autumn day.
1,353 miles, “spent most of its life in a museum” and it needed re-painting?
And only $129k.
Yeah, right.
My thoughts exactly!
I think with the classic Shelby cars demands and getting these prices tgat seems very fair.
Especially with all these getting raced and engines throwing rods it makes these scarce.
The only defect found was being born without fully developed pedals and a malformed transmission 🙀😉
For some reason, considering the extremely low miles and condition, I expected the price to be much higher than as listed, also considering what this car is. Basically a brand new ’69 Plymouth Road Runner with the optional 426 Hemi or as close as we’ll ever find one.
The 425 hp rating goes back to the early-mid sixties, almost like a point no manufacturer would advertise beyond on a passenger car for the public highways. Safety fanatics were already making a case on these guys, felt through the whole industry.
Plus, I dont remember what rpm that 425 rating came at, the Hemi could make power well over 6000, which was its strong suit. In race trim of course, not with full exhaust and so forth.
If, and only if, you drive this Runner please be extremely careful with it, they ain’t makin’ anymore of these.
Back in the day, insurance companies would not insure anything with a 500 horsepower rating, so the manufacturers all “exaggerated” , as Spock might say. Two huge four barrel carbs (and the mighty Six Pack) weren’t going to be low powered.
Dave, yea, the insurance companies jumped on the buyers of such high powered cars, the US government had the auto manufacturers up against the wall at the same time. A lot of questions about why they were building such high powered cars were brought up on several hearings, the idea that racing developed safer cars fell on deaf ears and eventually the talk of auto safety became law, felt hard in ’68. Many of the top brass of the corporations just wanted these super cars to go away, ,,,some old timers believed many of these safety and smog laws were aimed directly at the high performance cars to regulate them out of existence. Some of those old timers were well respected automotive journalists.
You had consumer advocates,, the federal government, and of course the insurance companies all pointing their fingers at cars like our Road Runner here. Crazy it even lasted as long as it did really.
Cars with that mileage have
NO LOGICAL reason to be
repainted.
The repaint took away alot of the value. There only original once and they wrecked that. Way to much for not original car.
A automatic Not a four speed I would put a six speed in it change the interior color to black a real nice set of wheels and tires a little restomod that’s it don’t worry it’s just a roadrunner
tbh i would drive the ever living crap out of this car, yeah sure the value would go down but they were made to be driven no to sit in a garage or a museum, i would’n daily it tho i would just drive it on the weekends but would drive it hard some may not like it but cars like this were made to be driven and it deserves that.
Why on earth paint a car with less than 2,000 miles on it? Fishy. Needs a really good story, Ricky Bobby.
Sorry guys, with such low mileage, a lot has been changed. I am no way an expert on the B body Hemi, but a little knowledgeable on period correctness. The add did state the car has been painted once. Maybe because of the accident it was in. The driver rear quarter appears to have been damaged at some point(look at the trunk photo). The rear window may have been taken out, do to the leak on the passenger side. The trunk divider looks incorrect. The door seals seems to be original, but not the trunk one. The enter door plugs should be green and not black. Being a Hemi, not sure, but I believe the firewall should have insulation, non seen. No head rests or shoulder belts on the front seating. I see a lot of newer screws being used, including the fender tag and engine department. Alternator is incorrect, as the top of the master cylinder. Seller says he changed the rear gearing, but I would of thought he would of reinstalled the tag. Advertising as being original, you would think the heater would be hooked up. Not sure way he showed the aftermarket gauges in detail, because they state the RPM is 1,100, engine is cold and “0” oil pressure. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a “SWEET” car and would be proud to have it sitting at my home, but when someone states it has only 2,000 mile on it, it should look like it just came off the showroom floor.
headrests were an option until mid ’69 when they were standard. No shoulder straps, and a wrinkly headliner…the headliner was changed and the shoulder straps left out.
Meaty tires, aftermarket gauges, 410 rear…. and keep the manual drum brakes… makes sense to me.
Are trim tag screws OEM? I’ve replaced rivets for my sub 6 figure cars. Interior body work in rear fender should have been better.
I’d guess owner added the go fast(er) parts, stomped the peddle and the back end got too Wile E for him to control. Probably slid into a boulder, a wall or a painted tunnel, resulting in new paint.
Beep Beep
This car needs to be HOONED like it was meant and built to be. If I had the funds available for another car I’d buy this..I’d fire up that elephant under the hood and melt the tires all the way up onto the trailer!! All smiles baby.
Just to set the record straight, these engines did not have their spark plugs centrally located in the combustion chamber. Modern iterations of the hemi attempted to compensate for this shortcoming by going to dual plug ignition systems.
Today’s hemisphere are not the same, knuckle head
LOL. I scrolled back up looking for a comment by Knucklehead. I was like cool, I ride a shovel.
Maybe 1353 miles since restoration?
Call me silly, but this line from the listing does not make any sense to me. “Everything on the car is original (except one repaint) and from the factory or we are in possession of the original parts.” What the heck? Was it repainted before it left the factory? And exactly what original parts are they in possession of that are not on the car? I really like it aside from it being an automatic. But none of that matters because I am not the person who will pay $129,900 for any car, much less this one.
A hemi with an automatic. Just seems wrong.
Its not. First, I had the identical car(except color.Mine was bright blue). I remember driving the car home from the showroom in May 1969. I was in the street going about 25mph. No cars near me,si I decided to “nail it” for a second. The 727 picked up first gear and at 25mph completely lit-up the street tires and slid a lane sideways. I got off the gas cause I did not want to wreck it with 47 miles on it, I fell in love.It cost $3875 plus tax. Dear God why did I ever sell that car?????…Thank you Steve for reading the rantings of a retired NHRA nut !!!
I’ve read each comment so far about this little Plymouth, which I truly view as a treasure. I respect your sentiments regarding things which may not be original, things possibly damaged and repaired, inappropriate add-ons, or anything else that keeps this vehicle from being considered pristine, but allow me to present this challenge, Gentlemen. Go find anything remotely comparable, at any price.
that much for a column shifter car? NO WAY, factory 4 speed perhaps
Back in the day an automatic hemi would beat a stick with 4:10 gears on the street !
Art is rite
How is this remotely a barn find? Unless you consider air-conditioned, climate control security-protected buildings a ‘barn’.
How is it not a barn find? It’s a low-mile survivor and is awesome!
The greasy/dusty build up on the front brake parts is not from a 1600 mile vehicle.
Looking at the underbody and all the repaint id say 101,353 on the clock is more likely!
I don’t get the interior. I had a 69 Sport Satellite. Same body taillights etc. the interior was so much nicer in the Satellite. Big Buckets, console shifter. Why would they use that interior in a road runner? Mine came with a 318(swapped to a 340) why would a Rod Runner Hemi have a grandpa interior?
Ray, maybe to keep the cost down a bit, after paying the price for the Hemi. He just wanted a race car. Automatics do give you the best consistent times at the track. I’m just surprise it has power steering.
Ray, it’s a Road Runner not a GTX, cheapy stuff despite the outrageous Hemi. I agree with Terry on the power steering,,, just extra parasitic drag and weight, seems odd here.
Most of these cars weren’t “race” cars, power steering didn’t take much power to operate,
Steve R
Maybe so, Steve R, but a stripped down and expensive Hemi powered Road Runner, a street/strip car in every sense?! I’ll be real honest here, I never even thought power steering was available with the high strung high revving 426 Hemi. I learn something new everyday here at this site, I still dont get ps on a drag, street, money runner like this. And I believe this car here was ran very hard early on.
Most High – Po, Mopar cars had a cooling system on their power steering lines to keep the temp. down, so there must of been some drag on the unit.
Ray, nearly every Road Runner had a “grandpa” interior. The standard bench seat interior was shared with the base-model Belvedere, with two optional “upgraded” trim options: the bench seat from the mid-level Satellite (which, if my recollection is correct, is what we’re seeing in this car), and a bucket seat version of that same trim. The GTX shared the top-level trim of the Sport Satellite.
As a side note, the Road Runner and GTX did not share taillights in 1969. Belvederes, Road Runners, and Satellites shared flush mounted taillights with a surround moulding. The taillights on the Sport Satellites and GTXs were slightly “frenched” (inset).
My friend had one of these brand new ,watched it come off the truck and the guy that delivered it backed it off the car carrier and laid down a nice set of candy canes with the owner of the car watching 🤪
My friend bought one of these and waited patiently to have it delivered,when it came in he was there and the truck driver backed it off the car carrier and laid a set of candy canes right up the street past the new owner.
Where do I begin? Why would any car stored inside with this ridiculous low mileage need a repaint? It had to be raced and the ad says the engine and trans were refreshed and radiator replaced. Poor storage. 15 years ago these cars were selling at about $400,000. Shows you the truth that people who actually care about real muscle cars are now driving Teslas and Toyotas. Sad
So many fine points brought up by car guys. Road Runner was build to reach the younger market. A stripped down muscle car and sold well. Mopar does the same today. Build a Hemi and make it available in every thing they sale. Even a four door charger. Which they should have let the Charger name stay true to a two door. This is a nice car but not an original low miles car. Really what 20 something hot rodder in 1969 . Went to dealership and ordered or picked out a Hemi powered Road Runner to put away in storage thinking someday it will be worth gold. NOT!
I remember reading somewhere that the power steering pump absorbed maybe 7 horsepower. Which is probably meaningless in anything other than a dedicated drag car and likely not worth the pain in the but to do without power steering in a daily driver.
No factory tach…..I’ll pass……….
Drivers side quarter has a few wrinkles in it, now I know why the repaint.. 129K?? I think not, but there are people who will pay. good luck.
Remember folks that the speedometer is easily unhooked if you insist on driving this car. But its condition will make it unlikely or very risky to use it much. Sad, but really nice special cars are subject to a lot of damaged if used at all.