Will Do!
Memory Trivia:
Drove the RR during my first ever DMV road test either on my 16th birthday or pretty close to it. Never had a girl in the vehicle with me, with the exception of my sister who rode with me to high school.
I suggested to Mom that we order the backlight louvers in place of the spoiler, but she wondered how we were going to keep the rear window clean, so we ordered the spoiler instead. We did not know at ordering time that the front eyebrow spoilers were part of the package (and were dealer installed). That was a surprise. We also found a new combination wrench under the driver's bucket seat, I believe it was 9/16".
The vehicle was delivered with the aftermarket (knee-knocker) A/C already installed. I believe it was an ARA model that fit under the dash perfectly (followed the curves, so it must have been model specific). One day while at McDonald's, Mom was in the car, idling in drive with her foot on the brake when the motor overheated. We decided to remove the A/C after that. Well, the shop in San Jose that installed it for the dealer removed it. The A/C parts were turned over to the second owner, along with the factory mufflers.
I drove the car for a long time with the console removed, because it was vibrating (I think at idle) and that was getting on my nerves. I remember at 70 MPH the tachometer was reading 3000 RPM. At full throttle in drive, the Torqueflite would shift into the next gear at 4,500 RPM. At the dragstrip, I would use the slapstick and shift at 5,500 RPM.
One more thing, I installed chrome rear shock absorbers and fire-injector spark plugs with the multi-ground electrodes from JC Whitney. The shocks were advertised to run cooler because the chrome would supposedly act to cool the oil inside the shock. The spark plugs claimed to be so efficient that the idle speed would increase after they were installed. Both advertising claims were B.S. but as a teen I would believe just about anything.
The oil temperature (monitored by the SW gauge that I had our local mechanic install) took much longer to normalize than the coolant temperature and ran hotter than the boiling point of water. Not sure if it was 240 or 250 degrees or something else. I asked the mechanic to install Penzoil 20W-40 racing oil, which he did. Later, I found out that racing oil is non-detergent so that was probably not the best idea.
The aftermarket SW vacuum gauge at idle speed was not steady. It would bounce rapidly back and forth about 5 inches on the scale. At cruise it was steady.
As a Junior, I got my guts up one time and challenged a classmate (Palma High School) who had a 390 auto Mercury Cyclone (1968-70) to a drag race. Half the student body followed us out to a country two-land road. We both had large varsity football players with us in the passenger seat and another kid flagged the start. The Road Runner immediately jumped ahead about a car length and maintained the lead all the way to 90 MPH, which is what we decided to race up to. I won either ten or twenty dollars for the win. Never street raced again, too nerve wracking.
After replacing the factory mufflers with the straight through Thrush mufflers (the model that had no fiberglass inside to burn out) I remember pulling up behind some girls walking to school, putting the gear selector in neutral, and winging the motor to the 5,500 RPM redline. They jumped straight up in the air, scared the hell out of 'em.
At Fremont Raceway dragstrip, a spectator told me he could here the Road Runner Thrush exhaust alongside my competitor who had open headers. At WOT the exhaust note was LOUD, but cruising on the freeway it was not too bad. Well, cruising at any speed was quiet, while accelerating at any rate was rather loud. Never got a noise ticket, but like I mentioned on Facebook, the second owner (who purchased the RR from us for $2,000.00) did get cited and put the stock mufflers back on.
Since the 3.23 rear end was open (no sure-grip) I was experiencing some wheel spin at the dragstrip. A fellow racer told me to pump up the tires to 40-45 PSI (over the standard 32 PSI) to improve traction. I went over to the air hose at the dragstrip, but it was for slicks and very low pressure so I had to go out and find a service station in Fremont to pump up the Polyglass GT tires. Sure enough, the guy was right and the wheel spin was eliminated by pumping the tires up and not by letting air out. Never could break out of the 15 second bracket (low 15's). Lost the time time slips somewhere along the way. Never did any tuning to the factory Holley carburetor or messed with the timing either. The car ran the same elapsed times with the air grabber either open or closed.
Never took it out on the highway to verify top speed. I did work as a CHP officer in South Los Angeles in 1983, but the 440 Dodge Polara's were long gone by then (our patrol cars were 318 Dodge Diplomats, except for one 5.0 liter Ford Mustang which I never got to drive)
The edges of the front G60-15 tires began to wear pretty early on. I attributed that to cornering a little too fast and not to a front end alignment problem, but who knows.
I went down to the local auto parts store to purchase anti-freeze once. What they had in stock, was "Goodyear" brand coolant that came in metal cans (like paint thinner cans). So I drained the factory coolant and replaced it with this off-brand stuff. About a year later, I removed the radiator cap and noticed a lot of rust inside. I was not happy to find that and only used Prestone brand thereafter in all of my vehicles.
When I race my four-speed '65 Plymouth Valiant four-door with 10 inch slicks, I used to run 10 PSI in them (had tubes and rim screws). One day, I lost traction for no apparent reason. When I returned to the pit area, i noticed the belts were showing through on the M & H slicks. I had worn them completely out and had to go home. Another pair of slicks arrived soon thereafter via Greyhound Bus.
Was riding with my best friend one night the first day he had his 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 auto. We raced a '68 or '69 383 Road Runner just outside of downtown Salinas. Then a Sheriff's car took after us both. We kept going and the friend in the Road Runner got busted. We got away thanks to the RR pulling over first. At full throttle, that Chevy always burned some rubber when it shifted into second gear (eventually the Chevelle had a dash fire and was considered a total loss).
Just a few memories I thought you might get a kick out of.
