This ’69 Plymouth Road Runner Hides a Redeye Surprise

One of the biggest ways to dramatically alter the performance of a vehicle is to do an engine swap. They’re popular among certain enthusiasts because of the extreme, sometimes unexpected power suddenly made accessible. However, to the purists they’re usually considered thing of blasphemy, especially when a modern powertrain is dropped into a classic muscle car. That’s exactly what was done with this 1969 Plymouth Road Runner and the results are awesome.

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Instead of the factory mill, the owner of this classic Mopar muscle car dropped in a modern Hellcat Redeye engine and transmission. At least the guy kept it in the same brand family, unlike those people who LS swap a classic Ford and anger so many hardcore Blue Oval guys.

There’s some irony in this build. After all, the Road Runner was introduced as an everyman’s muscle car. They were bare bones, simple, and quite affordable so everyone could join in the fun. In case you haven’t looked, Hellcat Redeyes, be they Dodge Challengers or Chargers, are anything but affordable. Having 800-horsepower on tap comes  at a steep price, keeping many out of the exclusive club.

At the same time, Plymouth Road Runners have been subject to some eye-popping inflation in the collector car market in recent years. It’s not uncommon to see them selling for six digits, especially with a unique build like this. It’s a twist of fate many enthusiasts who aren’t sitting on piles of cash have lamented or even cursed.

With the nature of modern powertrains, it’s necessary to use the Redeye’s dash in the Road Runner. So this definitely qualifies as a restomod. Even the backup camera is included. Not everyone is a fan of the restomod movement, but if done well we certainly like them. And this one is done quite well.

Even though we probably couldn’t afford this car if it were ever to hit the open market, we absolutely can admire such a sweet build. It sounds incredible with the V8 and supercharger whine in concert and the look of the classic Road Runner is hard to beat, making for one hell of a combination.