I bought my car in May 2007 from a friend in Bolton, Manchester. She's my second American car in four years but my first V8, so you can imagine my excitement on the 6 trains I had to take from Swindon.
She's a 1972 Plymouth Roadrunner, dressed up in the Richard Petty blue racing livery and decals. Petty was a famous nascar driver. Known as "The King", he won over 200 races in a career that ran from '58 to '92, including winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times.
Under the bonnet is a tired 340ci V8 with 4 bbl Holly vac sec coupled to a 4 speed manual gearbox When I bought the car it was pretty much standard other than a good cam. She has standard heads, inlets and manifolds.
July 2007 saw the car on the strip at the Mopar Nationals for the first time with me at the wheel. First run was a 16.6 going down to a 15.5 -with that try I blew the cam core plug clean out. That was about the time I decided something needed to be done.
It wasn't until November 2007 that I finally pulled the engine out. While I was still trying to figure out what to do with the block, I repainted the floor pans, k frame, wheel arches and rear axle, all in black, (I haven't replaced the carpet as I like the bare floor look). I got some money together just after Christmas and bought myself an Eagle stroker kit 340ci-416ci. The block is pretty much there but the heads originally came from a 360 block. I just need to replace an inlet and exhaust valve so hopfully this Sunday, 27th of April 08, will see the fire up of the new stroker motor, wearing it's new side exit exhausts. Once it's back on the road I can continue to protect and paint the underneath of the car as I work in an accident repair centre.
I don't have many future plans for the car -I'd like a rollcage, (just for the nascar look), and maybe one day have a respray but keeping the Petty look.
In some of the pictures there's a 1975 Dodge Dart Sport in blue, which was my old car that my friends used to drive to shows for me and the ugly mug is me.
I bought my car in May 2007 from a friend in Bolton, Manchester. She's my second American car in four years but my first V8, so you can imagine my excitement on the 6 trains I had to take from Swindon.
repainted the floor pans, k frame, wheel arches and rear axle, all in black, (I haven't replaced the carpet as I like the bare floor look). I got some money together just after Christmas and bought myself an Eagle stroker kit 340ci-416ci. The block is pretty much there but the heads originally came from a 360 block. I just need to replace an inlet and exhaust valve so hopfully this Sunday, 27th of April 08, will see the fire up of the new stroker motor, wearing it's new side exit exhausts. Once it's back on the road I can continue to protect and paint the underneath of the car as I work in an accident repair centre.
In some of the pictures there's a 1975 Dodge Dart Sport in blue, which was my old car that my friends used to drive to shows for me and the ugly mug is me.