Fastest Road Runner

In 1969, the combined staff at Motor Trend magazine voted the Plymouth Road Runner its Car of the Year. It had only come on stream the previous year, largely in response to the huge success of Pontiac’s GTO, but was a hit from the off.

The theory was simple: a low-priced, two-door sedan with the highest output motors in the range available. Plus, a cartoon animal to give the marketing department something to play with, and a funny sounding horn. In a review of Plymouth’s new model, Car and Driver put it beautifully succinctly: ‘If you like the taste of whisky, you drink it on the rocks, right?’

In planning the concept, Chrysler executives focused their attention on the vast sea of blue-collar workers who liked a bit of stop light action, probably went to the drags but weren’t competitive racers. They didn’t have a big budget but were fiercely brand loyal and um ed at the chance to buy a no-frills factory hot rod that would run 100mph in the quarter and cost under $3000. Some 44,300 of them did in the oad unner s first year, then more than 81,000 in 1969, outselling Pontiac’s GTO and giving GM’s new big block Chevelle a run for its money. At every stop light.

It looks like a nicely restored stocker at rst lance ut then your eyes ali ht on the ilodon sump al racs and wider rear wheels which ma e this un re ellow more o a esto od in dis uise ut one that still i es that old car e perience rather than tryin to e a modern car

This time round the boys have gone for more of an A12 look with the black steels, no hubcaps and chrome wheel nuts, though at 6x15 and 8x15, the rears are considerably wider than the skinny steels Plymouth chose to t in Street tyres are BFGoodrich radials with their sidewalls shaved and redlines applied by Mr Whitewalls

Chrysler’s 426 Hemi was already the stuff of legend when the Road Runner came out, and was on the option list from the start, but it was too expensive. It was also a high maintenance, gas-swilling bear on the street. Much more relevant to Road Runner buyers was the trusty 383 big block, which offered a solid, dependable 355bhp and would spin up the F70-14 bias ply rubbers on their plain Jane steels ’n’ caps with ease.

Mid-way through ’69, the 440 was added to the Road Runner options list, and with three two-barrel Holleys produced 390bhp it gave mid-13 second performance off the showroom oor. he now highly sought after A12 Engine Conversion Package, as it was known, really put the Runner in Road Runner.

Chris Nowak saw this 1969 example advertised for sale in Auto Trader when he was on a business trip to Bournemouth almost 20 years ago now. A ‘minor’ detour via Essex on the way back to Doncaster to view it sealed the deal.

On another trip to Bournemouth, a couple of weeks later, he took his wife with him. ‘I suggested we take the scenic route home,’ Chris chuckles. ‘She spotted the car from about 400 yards away and said “Please don’t tell me we’re going to be stopping outside that house.”

‘I said let’s just take a look while we’re here. But my cover was blown when the guy selling it said “Hello, nice to see you again!”’

he return ourney in ol ing the , some very expensive fuel courtesy of said RAC man, and a lack of windscreen wipers was somewhat fraught. But the look on their teenage son’s face when they made it home was priceless.

‘I was only about 17 at the time,’ remembers Adam, the son in question. ‘But I was over the moon.’

What it lacked in fuel in the tank, it made up for in paperwork in the glovebox, showing the former Nebraska car had been imported into the UK in the early ‘90s by Bernie Chodosh. More importantly, the VIN showed it to be a genuine ’69 Road Runner, factory equipped with a 383, auto transmission, 8.75 rear end and unfire ellow aint. o additional performance packs. At that point, though, it was orange with a ’glass Six Pack bonnet, a 440 and a four-speed.

‘I think it had lived a lot of its life outside since coming to the UK so had suffered a bit,’ continues Chris. ‘But it was all there, and we just set about using it.’

With York Raceway just up the road, part of that using it entailed ragging it down the quarter mile at every available opportunity.

‘I’d never drag raced before,’ explains Chris. ‘We’d been to watch, but going there in this car was my first time. ran seconds and thought that was fast.’

‘It then ended up as our main hobby for the next 15 or 16 years!’ interjects Adam.

you now what you re loo in at under the lass li t o onnet you ll immediately spot this is a bit more than a stock restoration – but, as a CC reader you re not most people hat repro i ac air lter is all part o the disguise to make the casual onlooker think this might be a stock restoration

he owa s ha e always wanted to eep the oad unner a car o it s still the date coded loc and stoc cran that were in it when they bought it, though a Hughes main cap girdle helps keep it all to ether t now uses cat rods and pistons and is pe ed at compression ndy ylinder ead ported a ed e heads support a ull roller top end and it suc s uel throu h a custom uilt humper ar s c m sin le our arrel on an ndy sin le plane inta e with super suc er spacer ou s eaders sna e around that actory manual steerin o standard e uipment on a no rills oad unner and e haust ases e it throu h a inch system with ynoma mufflers he fully rollerised 727 TorqueFlite behind has a Turbo Action valve body, A&A Transmissions billet steel front drum, Kolene clutch plates, billet ser os and a car on e lar transmission shield and has een ood as old since he recent addition o an low ratio rst and second ear set y cott illadeau has made it e en more responsi e

Chris has had a few American cars in the past but the one that got away was this ’63 SS Impala (which, very sadly, ended up in Ireland being cut into two novelty display pieces for a bar). ‘That’s me and my sister with dad in the car,’ says Adam. ‘Those sorts of experiences at an early a e were a reat in uence on me Here’s the car as Chris bought it 18 years ago now. Repainted orange, with a 440, 4-speed and i ac onnet tted and eld wheels

In a moment of madness, the boys bought a Dodge A108 van to tow the car to the races. It looked a cool rig, but the weight distribution was almost disastrously wrong An interim makeover around 2014 saw the car sporting some of Craig Ainge’s fantastic signwriting, though Adam and Chris resisted other suggestions to bore and stoke the 440 It’s the car that does it all – street, strip and even wedding duty

Eventually, though, the fun had to be put on hold for a while and the rust and ller issues dealt with his picture was taken just after York Raceway closed in 2018

Neatly skipping over all Ash’s hard work, here’s the ’shell after he laid on the resh coats o un re ellow

Also very cool is an Aeromotive ph su mersi le pump and affle system incorporated into a modi ed but stock-style fuel tank

Right: Lift the top on the reproduction lass i ac air lter and you ll see it s een modi ed to wor with the car’s single four-barrel carb And this one at the end of the following weekend! Some of the smaller rust repairs needed were done at home… …but once the shell got to Ash Rawson’s workshop, things escalated dramatically

hile that was oin on the oys were busy at home restoring all the bits they’d taken off…

A detail we really like is the drop-out centre section in the exhaust so the twin ynoma mufflers can e uic ly removed at the track while the tailpipes stay in place …even down to trimming the seats themselves, these being from a ’68 Charger as the car had plastic bucket seats when Chris bought it There are loads of neat hidden details, like the Auto Meter transmission temp and voltage gauge innards transferred into the original gauge cluster

Right: This montage nicely illustrates the three phases of evolution the car has been through in the owa s hands e like them all, but we like it best the way it is now Left: Chris and Adam have made a conscious decision to keep the car 440 powered, but this is its third rebuild. The only stock parts that remain now are the block and the factory forged crank

Car’s best time is 10.69 seconds at 125.89mph with a 1.49 60ft. That’s probably as quick as it will ever go in the Nowaks’ hands as, if they take the next step, it will no longer be a street car – and it’s always remained a street car

Pics on this page by Julian Hunt

When racing, the Nowaks bolt up a set of American Racing Torq Thrusts with 29-inch Moroso frontrunners and 29 x 10.0 Hoosier slicks

Buffers will know an A12 Road Runner would have a 440 6bbl sticker on the side of the gaping air intake in the lift-off bonnet, but this one has what is says on the tin. Plymouth execs were surprised to discover they could trademark the words Road Runner for use on a car, despite Warner Brothers having been using it for their cartoon character since 1966. A deal was done between the two and the cheeky character became an integral part of the Road Runner legend. A quick spot for a ’69 Road Runner is the recessed tail lights. Love those factory exhaust tips which, thanks to V-band clamps, stay in place when the mufflers are dropped out for racing

Not long after, the father and son team were approached by Dave Billadeau, asking if they’d be interested in joining the American Super Stock drag race series.

‘That was a really great thing to do,’ says Chris. ‘The friends we’ve made, the help you get, it was absolutely brilliant.’

Despite admitting they had no idea what they were doing, the pair became stalwarts of the series – which led to the first of the engine rebuilds.

‘We pride ourselves on doing as much as we can ourselves,’ says Adam. ‘So we’ll take something apart, buy a book and then just work our way through it.’

The addition of Edelbrock aluminium heads, a bigger cam and headers saw the times tumble to low 13s, with the occasional high 12. ‘It was down to technique really, and practice,’ explains Adam. ‘And replacing the four speed with a TorqueFlite.’

Being consistent in a bracket class made the Nowaks very competitive, even winning the championship one year. The problem was the series didn’t accommodate two drivers in the same car – so Adam would wheel it in American Super Stock then hand over to his dad, who competed in Pro ET at the same events. Happy days.

A second engine rebuild saw the heads milled for more compression and a bigger cam and carb, while some weight came off through the use of ’glass bumpers, a fuel cell and a heater and back seat delete. When they dipped into the 11s, a roll bar was required, while swapping to Calvert Racing suspension parts both mitigated the extra weight and helped with hook up. A third engine rebuild saw the Edelbrock heads and intake replaced with parts from Indy Cylinder Head in Ohio. At the same time came a further bump to 11.2:1 compression and a full roller top end, which netted 646bhp and 575ft.lbs of torque on EDA’s dyno in Castleford.

The real turning point, though, was swapping the second hand Holley 950 for a custom-built 1050cfm carb from Dominic Thumper in California. ‘It’s incredible,’ says Adam. ‘It got us an extra 15bhp on the dyno and really woke the car up, yet it’s still driveable on the street – which is an important factor for us.’

That and the 8.5-inch, 5000rpm stall converter they had custom made by ATI Performance Products in Maryland contributed greatly to the car’s current best time of 10.69 at 125.89mph.

By that point, the car was starting to look a bit tired. It had become more race than street, too, though it did still see a lot of road use. And, despite everyone saying they should bore and stroke it, it remained a 440 car, on the ’69 date-coded block that was in it when Chris bought it.

‘It was a good 1000-yard car at that point,’ chips in Chris with a grin.

Around 2014 or 15, Craig Ainge exercised his considerable signwriting skills to add ‘Nowak & Son Racing Team’ and big cartoon Road Runners to the sides – as well as the names of two mythical speed shops, both of them references to Adam’s grandfathers.

That look lasted up until York Raceway closed in 2018, at which point the boys had to make a decision.

‘We knew there was rust and filler in the car, but there was always another race meeting to go to,’ says Adam. ‘Or another show,’ interjects Chris.

Sad as it was, York closing was the catalyst needed. One weekend later, the car was a bare shell and the boys were in talks with renowned Mopar body and paint expert Ash Rawson at APR Bodyworks.

‘Yeah, it ended up with a lot of new AMD metal in it,’ says Adam. ‘Rear quarters, boot floor, parts of the rear chassis legs, front wings…’

Meanwhile, Adam and Chris set about restoring the rest. The brightwork went off to Prestige Electro-Plating in Mexborough and they took on everything else, stripping every sub-assembly and rebuilding it in its correct factory finishes. ‘We got a bit carried away, but we just wanted it to look as close to factory as we could, and to try and hide as many of the modifications as possible,’ explains Adam.

The roll bar, for example, was re-made in chromoly by 351 Motorsport in Wakefield – but done this time so it doesn’t protrude into the boot, and so the rear brace is removable to allow access to the rear seat.

A ’68 Charger donated its front seat frames, which the Nowaks re-trimmed themselves using Legendary Auto Interior products. The stock steering wheel went back in, and some of the additional Auto Meter gauge innards were incorporated into the original gauge cluster.

Left and Above: Suspension mods include RHS tubular upper control arms and adjustable strut rods, lighter duty small block front torsion bars, CalTracs, split monoleaf springs and Calvert Racing adjustable shocks all round. A Wilwood Dynalite disc brake kit adds stopping power at the front, while a narrowed truck Dana 60 back axle with Eaton Truetrac diff, Strange shafts and 4.10 gears by George Chiles has proven up to the job since the old 8.75 axle took a dump on the line Above: ’68 Road Runners only came with bench seats, but buckets were available for ’69 so, as the originals were missing, the Nowaks sourced some from a Charger and re-trimmed them using Legendary Auto Interior products. Race additions include a selection of Auto Meter gauges and that Cheetah SCS Turbo Action shifter

Below: RCI three-inch harnesses and a neatly formed chromoly roll hoop by 351 Motorsport with removable driver’s door bar and rear brace tell you this car is built for more than just static shows, but it does both jobs equally well

Above: Super clean boot area no longer has the cage protruding into it, but does still have the re-located battery to help with weight distribution at the drags Car’s superb paint and bodywork is the handiwork of Ash Rawson at APR Bodyworks in East Yorkshire

Below: Though a cheaper coupe with popout rear quarter windows was available, the better looking hard tops with their roll-up rear windows were more popular and greatly outsold them. Road Runners in this guise were only built for two years before the body was redesigned for 1970, and then again in line with the manufacturer’s ‘fuselage styling’ concept in 1971

Returning to steel bumpers and a modifi ed stock steel fuel tank with ba e and Aeromotive submersible pump added weight, but it was all done to maintain the illusion that this is a largely stock car. We like that a roach a lot.

ence the return to the factory aint colour. ‘We were really undecided on the colour, remembers dam. ‘ t was im olmes that said to us, to take the decision out of your hands, ust do what it says on the . im was right, and the boys ha en t regretted the decision once, nor the decision to let sh do the work.

‘We e got it down from an second car with a four s eed to a best of . at . m h through the mu ers in what now looks like a fairly stock car. We re really ha y with that as one of the main aims when we built the car was to run tens through a full e haust, says dam, his dad nodding in the background.

What we think is most im ressi e about this car, though, is that it manages to tread that fine line between street car and race car. dam is more into the racing, and it does ust what he wants it to do there, yet it s also a car his mum and dad will um in at the weekends and take to local car shows – which hris ha ily admits is what he refers to do these days. hat s a huge accom lishment with what the boys are retty sure is the uickest full weight, owered car in the country.

‘ t s where we want it to be now, says dam.

‘ ce t we ha en t got anything to work on together in the e enings and at weekends now, adds hris. ‘ o m thinking that we need to get something else.

‘ f we did that, might also get the o ortunity to race against my son