By 1973 the days of the muscle car were long gone and the Road Runner continued as a B-body Satellite option. This one listed on eBay is a 400 CID 4 bbl 260 Horsepower car with a column shift automatic. It’s in Roanoke, Virginia. Bidding is over $5,000 with 7 days to go but reserve has not been met. This Road runner was driven until 2002 when it had a starter or starter solenoid problem and the owner parked it. He died before he could repair it. According to the seller it has only about 22,000 miles on it. This actually seems like it might be true. The inspection receipts show the mileage each year increasing to 21,931 miles. It appears very complete and has potential.
The front seat looks OK. The dash has a couple of cracks. It appears the limited access in the shed limits the vantage points for pictures.
This Plymouth looks pretty straight and clean in shot down the left side.
The right side shows some paint bubbling at the bottom of the door which seems to be sagging a bit.
The back bumper has rusted some. There might be a lot more rust hiding out of sight. If this Roadrunner is not badly rusted, what do you think it might be worth? Could this be a nice driver? Perhaps one could do the necessary mechanical repairs, clean it up and drive it. Or, would you fix the rust, coax a little more performance out of the engine and upgrade the suspension and brakes? There are lots of possibilities here if there isn’t a lot of rust.
To me this is the last of the Road Runners. One of my relatives had one exactly like this when I was 10. To a young kid this car has awesome memories. It was exactly the same B5 Blue with white stripes and bench seat. However it only had a 318 with the manual column shift. Don’t remember it being particularly fast. I don’t know why these never bring good money, although they are great looking fun cars.
Considering this car isn’t a true muscle car but rather just a everyday coupe with special markings I don’t see how it’s worth what the bidding is at. Adding in the fact that there is visible rust plus bubbling which indicates concealed rust it’s really not worth more than $2500 or so.
It’s worth whatever the bidders are willing to pay
While as Joe sez, these were the last true RR’s, and I thought they were cool too. There’s no way on the 21,000 miles, nice try. I don’t see a lot of collectibility here, maybe, it is a Road Runner, and good cars to boot. Just not what you think of when you hear Road Runner. For that, for me, it will always be the original.
I had a B5 blue with white stripes on order for my 73 demo. It only had a 318 but with the dual exhaust. I was really impressed with the ride and handling of my mother’s 72 Sebring Plus. By the time middle of October came, I was tired of waiting, my 72 B5 uster Twister had been sold, so my Dad let me choose from the new car inventory. I found a dark green Duster 340 automatic with white buckets and console and the Spacemaker Package. It looked like I was destined to drive Dusters, but I still liked the look of that Road Runner.
Looks fairly nice and original. Those tires are fairly indicative of low actual miles. And I t’s still a big block, B body Mopar coupe. Maybe not as cool as a 71-72 with a four speed but still cool…and good enough for Daisy Duke!
Go through it mechanically, apply much elbow grease and tend to that rear bumper. Then enjoy.
Its a road runner,it’s a 2 door ,supposedly has low miles looks pretty solid whats not to like about it .If its not fast enough Make it faster. If you dont like the bench seats search the swap meets for some buckets .It may not be worth a million bucks but someone is going to get a nice ride for fairly decent money.
I too always found these cars strangely attractive as well, but I have never seen one of these restored. I do remember that you could actually watch these cars rust. One of the worst ever, second only to the Duster’s in ability to rust. Somebody step up to the plate and make this one nice.
Current bid of $8200.00. Hagerty has a #4 Fair at $14,000. What would this car be rated at?
1974 was the last year of the Road Runner as a B-body car. There WAS a 318 option for them, but the 400HO was the standard engine. Seeing the data plate would determine if it was a real Road Runner or a Satellite with a single exhaust 400 4bbl option. The non-original dual exhaust tends to lead me in that orientation, especially if the mileage is so low. The paint on the hood looks a little “off” too, compared to the front fenders. The rh door is problematic, too. Seeing the data plate and VIN would be KEY to the ultimate value of the vehicle.
Considering just what’s visible, best to price it as a Satellite that somebody might have “enhanced” in its earlier years. I don’t recall the bench seat option in a Road Runner back then. Still, with the 400 V-8, the architecture is there for some salvage yard upgrades (rear sway bar, part of the radial tire package on ’74 RRs), some 15×7 repro Rallye Wheels (it’s got the 14″ versions, now, which also means drum brakes!). Just adding the wider C-body 11×3 brakes all around would be easy, too, without doing a disc brake swap. Possibilities exist, but without a RR VIN, no big $$$.
Its a road runner .drum brakes are OK prob has disk being a 400 HP.car should have front and rear swaybars.bench seat is OK to.car will out run a lot of others out there .man I would just fix alittle of that rust .detale that car and be proud to have it.you got the handling there and 400 HP.trans should shift hard to if its original.I would not put any after market disco wheels on it yukk.keep it factory its how they was.the original advertisements to these cars were cool.all these cars look cool original.
David, it’s a 400 ci engine, not 400 HP. It only has 260 HP according to the story. Remember this is after muscle cars became a thing of the past.
There are alot of pics on ebay including the vin #s I’m sure someone on this site is a Mopar guy and knows how to tell if this is a real Road Runner .
While the car itself is one of the better designed MOPARS of the 70’s, that 400 under the hood is junk. It was the start of the gas shortage years and no matter what you did to it, you just couldn’t eek out enough horsepower to make it worth the money. You’re better off locating an older 383 or even go to a 440 and drop it in. Beef the trans with goodies from B&M;Trans Go or A1 Trans.
The weaker points on part of this drivetrain were the u-joints. For a few dollars, you can swap out the shaft and u-joints for a beefier setup more suited for a HiPo RB setup.
The door sag could be nothing more than a bad hinge assembly.
I disagree with MB on the brake swap. After living with the Mopars since birth, and working on them since I was 9 (when was the last time you worked on a tapered axle pin brake assy with dual cylinders?), I would spend the bucks to swap everything over to disc. Both front and rear.. While keeping a drum brake assy is nostalgic, I want the stopping power of disc over the fading power of hot drums.
As to the hood paint issue, you need to remember that this was the decade of going to no primer car paint, and many a hood, no matter whether it was Chrysler, GM or Ford, had issues with the paint flaking, chipping or even fading, which many body shops profited from. My 77 Daytona had such an issue twice, until I ponied up the cost of getting the hood repainted using a primer coat first. So the issue of paint tone difference is a non-issue.
So, if you want a daily driver, rebuild the carb; install new plugs (A42 or equivalent Autolite/Motorcraft gapped at .035; Motorcraft plugs actually burn hotter than the stock Champion or AC plugs the dealers use); while your doing an oil change, might as well take the time to replace the timing chain and thermostat; regrease or swap out the u-joints; do the brakes and change out the trans fluid and filter.
After doing all of this, enjoy your driver for years to come.
David King I remember those advertising brochures they were way kool.
If the car hasn’t moved since 2002 (according to the seller) why does it have July 2015 stickers on a 2007 Virginia anniversary plate???