So:
Here is the "write-up" MuscleCar Review, AND hotrod.com current edition:
READ THE STORY:
http://www.hotrod.com/
“One well known Chrysler legend denied that the car had ever been built”
-The Clean Air Act of 1970 probably helped us breathe better, but it also killed the muscle car momentum that had been building for at least a decade. Low-lead/no-lead fuel mandates resulted in lowered compression ratios, primitive emissions equipment, and decreased horsepower by 1972, a downward spiral that only got worse as the decade continued. Yet despite repressive government regulations, one illegal, coyote-asphyxiating 1972 440+6 Road Runner flew over the Mopar nest with a powerplant worthy of its high performance heritage.
-Russell Morgan of Washington, North Carolina, is a serious Mopar hunter. His first car was a 1971 Dodge Super Bee. He says, “My family members were Plymouth and Dodge people, and that’s how I got into them. While I was going through college in the mid to late ’70s, I studied Mopars. I memorized how to read the serial numbers and learned everything I could about Mopar muscle cars. I loved it. I had a jump on so many others because of my family’s involvement with Mopars.”
“The cars were just sitting around, ripe for the picking”
-When Russell graduated college in 1978, he got a job that entailed driving 2,000 to 2,500 miles per week. “In my travels I would find these Mopar muscle cars that people no longer wanted. My buddy Randy Feagle and I would spot these cars sitting around in driveways and garages. Remember, this was in the days of the gas crisis. People stopped driving gas guzzlers, bought economy cars, and didn’t go back. The cars were just sitting around, ripe for the picking.”
-Russell adds, “I never cheated anyone. They didn’t have to take what I offered them. But I was buying cars 10 cents on the dollar. I bought a 1970 Hemi ’Cuda in about 1981 for $480. It was the poster child Hemi ’Cuda: red, white vinyl top, Shaker hood, elastomeric bumpers, four-speed transmission, and a Dana rear. $480!”
-Looking back on that fateful day in the salvage yard, Russell recalls, “Always on the hunt for cool parts, I asked the owner how much he wanted for the Air Grabber hood on that red 1972 Road Runner GTX sunroof car. I bought the hood for $150. I took the hood to a swap meet in Charlotte, North Carolina. A man came up to me and asked me what car had that hood. I told him it was a 1972 Six Pack Road Runner GTX, and he said he had been looking for that car for years. He then asked me where the car was, and I said, ‘I ain’t gonna tell you.'”
-Russell immediately put the hood back in his truck and headed to the yard the next Monday. The yard’s owner had a clean title for the car and factory literature from 1972 that showed the Six Pack motor offered in the Road Runner GTX. The title confirmed the
RM23V2G in the VIN as an authentic two-door hardtop (
RM23), 440+6 (
V), 1972 model (
2) assembled at the St. Louis, Missouri, plant (
G).
-What happened next might go down as one of the great Mopar buys of all time. “He sold me the car with a clean title for $150,” says Russell. “He knew exactly what it was, but he knew I was a Mopar guy and that I would appreciate this car.”
-Upon purchasing the car, Russell began researching its history. One well-known Chrysler legend denied that the car had ever been built. When that Chrysler official was pressed, Russell was essentially told that the car was bogus. Undaunted, he continued to search for answers.
MORE GOOD STUFF IN THE ARTICLE
