These photos were provided by Butch Markel.
The rights to them have been released to the garage club for use as they see fit.
All rights reserved. 2007.
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Butch states:
"I have a '92 Corvette coupe and a '69 Road Runner. I showed and raced my Corvette
since 1996. I bought my Road Runner in 2001 and finished restoring it in April of
2006. My vette
has run 13.71 at 101.2 at Numida and a best of 13.85 at 99.80 at the Beaver. Whats
nice about the vette is it has traction control and it just squats and rocks at the
strip!! I hope to have both my cars at the Beaver for our meeting/race on June 7th,
2007 and run both of them." |
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Don "Butch" Markel
Garage Club Member # 137
'69 Plymouth Road Runner - '92 Chevy Corvette
August 2007 Featured member
Page Created 5-6-2007
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"I decided to purchase a road runner when a friend of mine was
listening to me vent about a '74 Corvette that came late to a local car show. It
parked next to me and was not even washed. When he shook his floor matsout, more
dirt came off than I ever had in mind since I purchased it and he won first place.
I knew then, even though my car is 15 years old it can't compete against cars in
the 60s and 70s.
My friend said, "You need a road runner. You never see any at car shows."
He knew I loved them and that started the process. I have owned a '71 Road Runner
and two 69s with this one making the third '69 Road Runners.
I started this one with a shell I found on the internet and had it transported from
Florida. This car had no engine, no tranny, and no interior. First, I installed new
floors and a trunk with Heath Deitrich's help. Then I had frame connectors, a 10
point roll cage, and mini-tubs installed professionally. I followed that with a 4
link coil over setup and installed an 8 3/4 rear with a 3:91 posi unit. This car
was supposed to have a posi and 3:91 gears already, but he lied!!
Lots of little problems started showing up with this car. The gas lines were removed,
the gas tank was removed, and the brake lines were bad. (Why would somebody remove
the gas tank anyway?) All steering parts were replaced and a 3 inch exhaust and flowmasters
were installed. (The three inch exhaust was very tight exiting through the narrowed
rear!!) Wilwood disc brakes were installed in the front and new drums were installed
in rear. Koni coilover shocks were added and moser axles finished up the work on
the rear end.
Six and ten inch Cragar SS wheels were put on for dress and both bumpers were rechromed.
A new windshield, new door handles, and all the stainless trim was professionally
polished. At this point I started to get a little carried away." |
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"I was originally going to put a crate 360/390 hp motor in the
car and be very happy with a 12.5 to 13.5 second car. This went away when I was reading
my Mopar Muscle magazine. They featured a 550hp 440 'how to' article that month and
I got interested. A few days later my friend Heath told me about this guy who had
a '69 date-coded 440 block for sale and a deal was made. The motor went to pro-line
machine shop, maybe some of you older guys remember them, my Maxwell racing enterprises
in the old days. The motor was built to be a race ready 440 roller motor, bored .060
over with 10.25:1 compression.
The engine is built to run on pump gas. It was balanced and blueprinted with powder
coated edelbrock aluminum heads, torker intake, barry grant 850cfm carburetor, trw
pistons, comp cam, big lift roller, windage tray, hooker headers, high flow oil pump,
holley manual fuel pump, deep moroso oil pan, and a mini starter. " |
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"The edelbrock heads made for lots of trouble. For example, the
stock starter wouldn't fit and I needed a mini starter. Spark plugs are hard to change.
The headers and intake were hard to fit into place, in fact my third set of headers
finally fit. Everything is tighter with them heads, but they really flow!!
The motor and rear gear ratio was copied from the magazine article. That car was
a 3650lb Challenger and ran an 11.30 e.t. at 121 mph. There were, however, some small
changes I made from the article. I used a 850 barry grant instead of a holley and
also used hooker headers instead of jr headers. That's the only difference between
mine and the Challenger's drivetrain. My Road Runner has a full interior though where
the Challenger didn't.
It is cooled by a be-cool aluminum radiator with a flex fan. Also added were mopar
valve covers, chrome air cleaner, chrome fan shroud, chrome alternator, and march
pulleys to dress things up. I also had the battery relocated to the rear.
Then it was transmission time. Already being over budget, I purchased a supposed
race transmission on the internet. Well it lasted less than 500 miles and I got the
real deal from Sepanic race transmissions. It shifts hard with a 3500 rpm converter.
A Hurst quarter stick shifts this Mopar.
Next it went to Fischers body shop where he replaced the quarters and we block sanded
for weeks. (My knuckles are still sore.) Chris did a nice job for me and I would
highly recommend him to anybody. H e painted it corvette yellow with two high gloss
black stripes. I have taken a lot of heat for putting chevy colors on my mopar, but
you live and learn.
Next, Pearl's umpostery did my seats and picked out my color combination. Pearl's
is located in York, Pa. and was recommended by a friend in Millersburg who had his
street rod done. My bucket seats are out of a Pontiac Fiero. I went with royal blue
carpet and a stock headliner. The dash was removed and dyed mopar black and a new
dash pad was added." |
"Other interior features include an Autometer tach with shift
lite that was mounted on the steering column. The 'thumber' radio was removed and
an Autometer oil pressure gauge and temp gauge were added in its place. (I figured
I wouldn't need a radio, that 440 would be music to my ears, and I figured right!!)
A wood grained steering wheel by Grant was also added.
I have showed my car locally and have won 2 'best of show' awards and 4 first place
awards, never a second. I am very proud of my Road Runner. Being semi retired, my
dreams are to travel to places like Columbus, Rockingham, and Ontario to the large
Mopar shows where I will show and race my 'bird'. (I just can't seem to get that
racing out of my system!!) Most of my car was professionally prepared, but I managed
to get my hands dirty on all aspects of the restoration!! " |
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