{"id":84100,"date":"2024-12-24T10:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T15:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=84100"},"modified":"2024-12-12T11:01:24","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T16:01:24","slug":"pre-production-pilot-road-runner-brought-back-from-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2024\/12\/pre-production-pilot-road-runner-brought-back-from-extinction.html","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Production Pilot Road Runner Brought Back From Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re into the vintage car hobby, we\u2019re sure you\u2019ve heard the term “pilot car” many times, but what exactly does it mean? When an auto manufacturer does a model year changeover and there have been changes on sheet metal, trim, driveline, chassis or other significant areas, a small batch of cars get built and run down the line before the new models get green-lit. This ensures the assembly process is in place to alleviate any potential issues when new model production ramps up. When the Plymouth did a major sheet metal and trim update on their 1970 Belvedere model line (along with the 1970 Dodge Coronet model), Chrysler’s engineering and production teams needed to make sure everything was in place for these cars to come off Detroit\u2019s Lynch Road Assembly Line (and other Chrysler plants across the country) without any hiccups and delays. These “pilot cars” would be subjected to numerous quality checks and audits during the assembly process. For timing purposes, it was not uncommon to use non-intent production parts from the prior model year to make deadlines that were usually dictated by executive managers of the plant, production scheduling, brand marketing and the vehicle\u2019s PR departments.<\/p>\n\n\n

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While the fate of these “pilot cars” usually ended up being whisked on the back of a tattered tow truck to some wrecking yard contracted by Chrysler, some escaped their date with the crusher. They ended up slipping through the system and into the hands of unknown buyers through a myriad of auto auctions and car dealers. Luckily for this rare and unique 1970 Plymouth HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Road Runner, it survived the ravages of time and abusive owners to finally end up in the caring hands of lifelong Mopar\u00ae<\/sub><\/strong> enthusiast Dale Mathews at this year\u2019s Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN)<\/a>. Dale made a promise to himself in 1981 at the Chrysler Car Club Convention in Chelsea, Michigan, when he saw his first HEMI engine-powered car. He swore he\u2019d have one of these rare machines one day and many years later, he got to fulfill that dream. Dale\u2019s dream came true about 25 years ago when word got out of a unique 1970 HEMI Road Runner in rough shape was sitting not too far from his home in North Carolina. Dale checked it out and a deal with the owner was struck for $5,000. Dale then turned detective and realized this particular HEMI Road Runner was a pilot car with a low VIN and unique parts.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIts \u2018Plain Jane\u2019 appearance hides the historical significance of this 1970 HEMI Road Runner,\u201d said Dale. He did a great deal of investigating to unearth rare features this car has over the standard production models. \u201cWhen my 1970 Road Runner was built in the Spring of 1969, some of the new production parts for the new year were not available from the supplier yet and the build center had to use existing parts. When I got the Road Runner, it was in very rough shape with no drivetrain, seats, windows and missing other parts. Luckily it had the dash with the VIN plate and inner fender data tag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Now with this rare Road Runner in his possession, Dale began the long journey of amassing parts that included a 426 Street HEMI engine that when he located one, sent it off to Eric Hester at M&E Engine Services to be rebuilt. Most vintage muscle car restorations have challenges but when you\u2019re working a pre-production pilot car that\u2019s over 50 years old, it\u2019s even more intense. As Dale points out, \u201cThis 1970 Road Runner has many 1969 parts on it. For example, it had the 1969 dash with the sweep speedometer and a Satellite lower plastic dash pieces and glovebox door, not the round Rallye style gauges found on the production 1970 Road Runner and GTX models.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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There were also other strange features Dale noticed when he dug into the Road Runner\u2019s internals. \u201cI found two trunk braces at the rear tail panel that never made production and were stamped with part number \u201800000.\u2019\u00a0Also, the firewall with hole location for the 1969 Air Grabber cable instead of the 1970 vacuum hoses. It also had the 1969 parts like a heater core box, battery tray, inner fenders, seat belts and other items, some with a date code of \u2018March 1969\u2019 stamped on them. There were also unique cutouts on the underside of the hood, not normally seen on other 1970 cars. What was very strange was my Road Runner was built with a 1970 Dodge Charger\/Coronet radiator support with studs sticking out the front for the latch plates that were never used on the 1970 Plymouth Belvedere, Satellite, Road Runner and GTX models. But the biggest telltale clue on the car\u2019s lineage was the super low production number on the VIN, which was 100015. Those numbers were on the dash plate, fender tag, radiator core support and trunk lip rail. Even the trunk\u2019s sheet metal skin was not spot welded like production cars,\u201d noted Dale. Because of the scarceness of this pre-production HEMI Road Runner, Dale reached out to many influential Mopar muscle car historians, including Frank Badalson, Scott Smith,\u00a0Mark Sikula\u00a0and Mark Coates.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was at the 2013 MCACN event Dale had his unrestored 1970 HEMI Road Runner pilot car on display in the Barn Finds and Hidden Gems section at the event. While a select few in the Mopar community knew of the car\u2019s existence, not many of the show\u2019s attendees knew of the Road Runner\u2019s significance. To the thousands of fans that walked through the display, it just looked like an old worn-out 1970 HEMI Road Runner that was ridden hard and put away wet. But for Dale, he never lost sight and focus for his Road Runner to one day return to MCACN to be unveiled in all its restored glory.\u00a0\u201cThe plan was always to someday have this moment so I had been thinking of it for years and wasn’t sure when I could pull the trigger to start the project because I knew it was going to be a big commitment,\u201d stated Dale.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cKnowing I wasn’t getting any younger, I wanted to bring the Road Runner back to how it looked new. I wanted to enjoy it finished and was tired of thinking about ‘someday’. I decided to get with Hodge Restorations in South Carolina and have their craftsmen do their thing and it came out awesome. Little did I know back in 2013 during the MCACN show when my old beat-up and worn-out Road Runner would be a featured vehicle at the 2024 MCACN event. When\u00a0I saw my car there being unveiled,\u00a0it was very surreal, and it was like I was in a foggy dream. I was not used to having that many people looking at me and my car and it was overwhelming!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Before the Road Runner\u2019s 2024 MCACN debut, Le Hodge from Hodge Restorations<\/a> had been working feverishly on getting the car ready for its unveiling. It was a year-long project with looming deadlines. \u201cI had seen Dale’s car over 20 years ago. When we received the car last year, to begin the restoration, we began taking notes on a few things that had not been seen yet. There was strong evidence of this being a pilot car. From unique switches, brackets, inconsistent paint treatment and just a whole lot of other weird items made this an interesting but fun project and Dale (Mathews) was great to work with,\u201d exclaimed Le.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Street HEMI 1970 Road Runners are very rare and a pre-production pilot car that\u2019s still around and has endured decades of being mistreated is very special, especially if it was on the verge of disappearing forever. Thank you Dale Mathews for spotting this one in the wild and having it restored for us muscle car sleuths to research and gawk over!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Here are some pics of Dale\u2019s rare pre-production “Pilot” 1970 Plymouth HEMI Road Runner being saved from extinction!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you\u2019re into the vintage car hobby, we\u2019re sure you\u2019ve heard the term “pilot car” many times, but what exactly does it mean? When an auto manufacturer does a model year changeover and there have been changes on sheet metal, trim, driveline, chassis or other significant areas, a small batch of cars get built and run down the line before the new models get green-lit. This ensures the assembly process is in place to alleviate any potential issues when new model production ramps up. When the Plymouth did a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":84087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[2949,943],"class_list":["post-84100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-plymouth-classics","tag-restoration"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PilotRoadRunner_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/PilotRoadRunner_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84177,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84100\/revisions\/84177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}