Dads Hemi Roadrunner finally making it to the track. I know not an A-body but it’s still exciting.

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71Demon528 said:
Update:
First pass my dad got the butterfly’s out of his system. Double bulbed by mistake and was in a tad deep. Rolled on the gas pedal, 1.31 60’ 5.87 at 116+mph

Second pass, made some front shock adjustments, tweak carb idle air screws little bit, and he was ready. 5.79 at 117.8mph 1.28 60’. New best

Third pass, tweak front shocks another two clicks, car hooked good,
5.770 118.39mph and 1.270 60’. New best.

Rear shocks need a little tweaking but all in all. We are ecstatic with how the car ran and I’m very happy for my dad.

Tomorrow is eliminations so I hope he can go a couple rounds.
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Jeez that is rippin, nice job RJ's dad
 
71Demon528 said:
Update:
First pass my dad got the butterfly’s out of his system. Double bulbed by mistake and was in a tad deep. Rolled on the gas pedal, 1.31 60’ 5.87 at 116+mph

Second pass, made some front shock adjustments, tweak carb idle air screws little bit, and he was ready. 5.79 at 117.8mph 1.28 60’. New best

Third pass, tweak front shocks another two clicks, car hooked good,
5.770 118.39mph and 1.270 60’. New best.

Rear shocks need a little tweaking but all in all. We are ecstatic with how the car ran and I’m very happy for my dad.

Tomorrow is eliminations so I hope he can go a couple rounds.
Click to expand...
Nice job, lotta work gettin it back to the track! My best to you guys today!!!
 
71Demon528 said:
I know it’s not an A-body, but it’s the car that got me into this mess of being a racing addict. 1968 Plymouth Hemi Roadrunner, RM23J vin, original 426 hemi, 4 speed, Dana hardtop car. My dad owned it since 1980 after buying it from a close friend who needed the money after the Vietnam war. Car was raced for years with the original iron block and iron heads. Then finally got a 540 bullet built for it few years back. After some smashed oil pans, and losing oil at the big end on two separate occasions, one of which my dad spun into the other lane and almost crashed into his opponent, the engine failed after that. That was 2021. Since then, we go a new KB block, with molnar crank, Oliver rods, and new diamond pistons, along with other rebuild components.

Now we turned it up to a 572 with 14.4:1 compression, Stage V replacement cylinder head (no change), Ray Barton rocker arms (no change), new molnar crank, Oliver rods, custom diamond pistons, same bullet cam, same Ray Barton single plane intake, new APD 1250 billet dominator, new TTI headers 2 1/4x4” with some cool kickout collectors, an all out racing 727 that was upgraded to hardened input shaft and output shaft, new strange 35 spline axles with 5/8” wheel studs replacing the old axles and 1/2” studs, new strange rear brakes replacing the wilwood rear brakes, and same turbo action 8” converter. Car weighs between 3365-3400 with driver, depending on the scales it is on and how much fuel is in it. Will get a more accurate weight this season. Ladder bar with floater rear suspension on a Calvert split mono leaf. 4.56 gears, Dana 60, 29.5/11.5w Hoosier stiff sidewall slick. Strange rear shocks, Viking front shocks. Stock torsion bar front end with stock upper and lower control arms (Which will be replaced this season god willing)

The engine went in back in end of March. Fired it up early April, and have been workin on it since to get it 100% race track ready. Well, finally, the weekend has come.

The 540 ran a best of 9.15 at 144.46mph, and a 5.80 at 118mph in the 1/8. That was with 4.88 gears, super stock springs, had a tiny vac leak so vac pump was not doing squat, an old holley 8896-2 1050 dominator from the iron engine, and old hooker 2 1/8x4” collector again from the iron engine. We were quite pleased with the 540’s performance especially knowing we had changes to be made that never got made because of the failure we eventually met.

Knock on wood weather this weekend at our local track seems to be going in the right direction, so hopefully we will get some good laps on the car without fighting too hard. Just want it to hook, go straight, go fast, be safe, and controllable.

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Shiz my 68 Roadrunner weighs 3880 with me in it and no cage! That's with a glass hood and aluminum wheels. Iron 440 with aluminum heads and intake. Is the car empty? How'd you get it so light?

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66Valiant528 said:
Shiz my 68 Roadrunner weighs 3880 with me in it and no cage! That's with a glass hood and aluminum wheels. Iron 440 with aluminum heads and intake. Is the car empty? How'd you get it so light?

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I know they are tanks hahah. My uncles 71 roadrunner weighs 3701 race ready. My dads is fiberglass hood, fiberglass front and rear bumper. Aluminum block and heads, all aluminum internal 727. With the iron engine it was 3575 race ready. And this setup I’ll get on scales soon but it’s between 3365-3400ish race ready.

how we got it that light? Beats me. I assume when it was being built back in the 80s, the body guy who did it (he is top notch) and he probably took it down to bare metal so it wouldn’t have couple hundred pounds of bondo on it. I have a friend right now re-building a 71 cuda and the amount of bondo on the car was insanity. Easily hundreds of pounds added. That’s all I can guess.
 
Dfr360cuda said:
I’ll be looking for it at the Curt George race.
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Has anyone heard from Bob? Years ago I always enjoyed reading his posts on another forum. Bob would be fun to sit down and have a beer with.
 
justinp61 said:
Has anyone heard from Bob? Years ago I always enjoyed reading his posts on another forum. Bob would be fun to sit down and have a beer with.
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Bob is still around but not like he was. AJ Casini now runs Bob George Racing. Bob usually is at the Curt George race.
 
Made it up here! Can't wait to make a pass! Here with a couple other Mopar friends.

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'Ol Bob gotta be getting up there in age. I remember going to his shop back in the early 1970's
 
71Demon528 said:
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Awesome car! I was there last night (for Keystone's new Car Club Feature) & it caught my immediate attention on his first pass! My good friend Rick Cavanaugh gave me the short story on your dad's RR, just coming back after the "oil filter episode".
Best wishes for a great weekend - the only rain in the forecast is in the wee morning hours of tomorrow.
 
KC69Cuda said:
Awesome car! I was there last night (for Keystone's new Car Club Feature) & it caught my immediate attention on his first pass! My good friend Rick Cavanaugh gave me the short story on your dad's RR, just coming back after the "oil filter episode".
Best wishes for a great weekend - the only rain in the forecast is in the wee morning hours of tomorrow.
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Thank you! Yes we know Rick well, and he was in attendance for the oil filter episode. Very scary experience. Luckily my dad got back in the car, and drove it like he stole it.
Couldn’t be more happy for him or proud of him for getting back in that car.
 






Some in car videos to kick this Monday morning off

Pay no attention to the clowns in the background lol
 
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Just some nice photos with the beautiful sky in the background. From some angles the hood isn’t too bad lol. Still can’t wait for the 6 pack hood to go on.

After going over all the time slips, it seems so far, we gained 1 tenth and 2 MPH goin from the 540 to the 572.

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