When this Plymouth Roadrunner came to us, it had been completely disassembled. It was just a painted body with no internal parts. Over the course of the last year (2021), we entirely revamped this car into what it is today. This car was done in tribute to the current owner’s husband— Tim Affa —who has since passed away. His wife brought us the car for completion. Upon receiving this car, Tim had already begun work and our team reviewed the original owner’s notes to honor his vision for this car. All of the wiring, brake lines, fuel lines, suspension, engine, and everything else needed to turn the outer shell of this car into the functioning car it is today was done inside of our shop. This project took a year which is an aggressive timeline for a project this large.
The car adorns factory original Sublime Green paint a 440 high-performance engine which is accurate for the time period of the car, with a new high-performance five-speed manual transmission, and high-performance clutch. The suspension has been upgraded with premium Moog polyurethane suspension components, the rear suspension is a heavy-duty spring with traction bars and a built axel with a spool. Making this car set up for drag racing.
The interior is also set up for racing with just two performance bucket seats with five-point racing harness belts and a roll cage. Aesthetically, we went for a more finished look inside then you would see for a traditional race car, for example adding fabricating some plastic paneling and extending the carpet to the back of the car to make sure the back of the car looks just as finished as the front while still keeping a minimalist race car feel. The underside of this car is just as polished as the exterior. The brake lines and fuel lines are hand fabricated and everything under the car was done in-house. Though some interior items are normally sent to upholstery shops, everything on the interior of this car was done in-house.
The engine has been built heavily with more than enough power to motivate this heavy vehicle down the road. Our goal was to keep an almost stock feel for this engine compartment. We wanted to keep the wiring harness and layout to appear factory to keep the feel of what an original Roadrunner would look like under the hood. Keeping the classic aesthetic and vintage engine so as to not push the engine component too far into the future is important to us.
This car has a 6AL MSD ignition and a high-performance carburetor with a larger-than-normal fuel pump. A serpentine conversion on the front was added to give more reliability, along with power steering and power breaks that allow this car to be easier to drive. And driven this car shall be! The owner has already debuted the Roadrunner at the Women ‘N’ Wheels Car Show at the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, CA in March and she is a new member of a Plymouth car club. Keep an eye on our YouTube channel for a video feature of this 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner built in loving memory of Tim Affa.
