Owner: James Dinsmore     Words & photos: Clive Branson

Cars are like landscapes: undulating curves and expressive lines. The 1972 Plymouth Roadrunner is no exception, with looks like it was born with muscle, not flab. And cloaked in black, it appears downright menacing.

The Road Runner brand has always been tough and power hungry. Hardly surprising, when you consider that its DNA dates back to its moonshine delivery days that meant dropping the hammer and out-classing the boys in blue. The ‘72 Road Runner was similar in look and design to its ’71 predecessor, with most of the changes in the engine to conform to new emission regulations. Only about 7,000 of the ’72 models were built, which makes them relatively rare and a collector’s wet dream. James Dinsmore’s Road Runner is even rarer because it rolled off an assembly-line in Windsor, Ontario pampered with a 440 high performance engine that can cause dentures to fall out at the turn of the ignition.

But James didn’t find it in a gleaming showroom, rather collecting dust in a barn from 1979 to 2012. The owner, Eric Riddell, died and his wife, Darlene, asked if James would be interested to purchase and restore it.

“Now, I am always ready for a challenge,” states James, “and the thought of bringing back a piece of history got my hands greasy with anticipation. This car was no longer roadworthy, but with major restoration, I thought it could be a great project muscle car.

“At a younger age I enjoyed working with my hands on mechanical equipment. As I grew into my late teens and twenties, I had older cars that I could afford. They often needed repairs to run, so I improvised and enhanced parts to make the cars go faster. The first newer car I owned was a 1968 Dart GTS 340 that was a medium sized muscle car. I had many hours of fun with this car by racing it at quarter-mile drag circuits. I have another historic car, a 1982 Chrysler Lebaron convertible. This was the first year that Chrysler made a convertible after not building them for a few years. My wife and I have fun with this convertible, going for drives with the top down on warm summer days and evenings.”

As history would have it, the Plymouth GTX got stuck in the tar sands, leaving the Road Runner as the manufacturer’s premier muscle car. “If a Road Runner was ordered with the 440 high performance engine, it became a Road Runner with a GTX package – GTX emblems on the front fenders and Road Runner emblems at the back,” explains James. “There were 672 Road Runners with 440 engines built in North America, 453 with automatic transmission and 219 with four speed standards. Most of these cars were built in the United States. I discovered that the Windsor plant didn’t have very good records. They knew how many Road Runners were built in the Windsor plant, but they couldn’t say how many Road Runners with a 440 high performance engine were built there.”

Thanks to the improved aerodynamics, the 1972 Road Runner was able to drive at higher speeds with optimal handling compared with previous models. In addition, the ‘72 model was one of the first vehicles to use an electronic ignition system (designed by Chrysler). This improved the starting time and helped keep the engine tuned up for a longer period of time. From an exterior point of view, it is one of the most sleek and sensual muscle car designs developed, exuding prowess even at rest: its stance is lower to the ground, its Coke-bottle frame boasts a severely-angled windshield and the car is adorned with a more prominent, wind-cheating grille.

“I worked for four years restoring this vehicle with the help of a few specialized tradesmen,” admits James. “In a project like this you have to keep working on it in most of your spare time, because if you don’t, it’s easy to lose interest and the projects could fail.”

With the fortitude of a MAC truck, James wouldn’t let any obstacle set him back for long. The previous 440 engine was equipped with a four barrel high performance carb and was completely restored to a 440 six pack, just like the original one back in 1972. New six pack standard-sized pistons were installed that raised the compression ratio to 10.5 accompanied by a six pack camshaft. The heads were C/C to lower the compression ratio to 10.0 in order to use today’s high octane fuel.

“The whole engine was perfectly balanced and rebuilt by a good friend at SS Performance Speed shop. The 727 transmission and the limited slip 8.750, 3.55 ratio differential were overhauled by Fireball’s Transmission Shop. The longest time was spent, by myself, replacing floor panels, inner fenders, back quarters, doors and numerous body and mechanical parts. The front and rear bumpers were re-chromed by Cambridge Custom Chrome and I had the car painted from green to its original midnight black hue. Driving my 1972 Road Runner gives me a great sense of pride when strangers say ‘beautiful car,’ or ‘you have done a good job restoring this muscle car.’ When I’m behind the steering wheel and start the engine, put it in gear and step on the gas, I know I am sitting behind the wheel of a real live Mopar car. It sounds like the rumble from thunder, feels like I’m in the script from Vanishing Point and looks like Muscle heaven on four wheels.”