Gorgeous 1969 Plymouth Road Runner Has Hellcat Power and a Manual Gearbox

With modern mechanicals and subdued, retro looks, this 1969 Plymouth Road Runner is nothing less than pure perfection.

Restomods are all the rage these days, and it’s easy to see why – who wouldn’t want a classic muscle car with an ultra-powerful, rather reliable modern powerplant? To us, this is the perfect combination, as much as we love old Mopars, and we have a pretty fantastic example of why that’s the case – this amazing 1969 Plymouth Road Runner that was recently featured in a video from the YouTube channel AutoTopiaLA.

Fusion Motor Company is the shop behind this amazing build, though they don’t necessarily specialize in Mopars – in fact, the shop has everything from Land Rovers to Mustangs in its stable at the moment. Regardless, this 1969 Plymouth Road Runner is the cream of that proverbial crop in our humble opinion, mostly because it’s essentially a perfectly restored classic muscle car with a brand new Hellcat powerplant under its long hood.

As all Mopar fans are well aware, that means this classic machine has plenty of guts to get it moving – 707 horsepower coming from that supercharged 6.2-liter V8, which is – amazingly enough – mated to a Tremec six-speed manual transmission in this case. What’s particularly cool about the build is that otherwise, it’s very much retro in the way it looks, from the pistol grip shifter to the painted steel wheels and redline tires, with a contrasting white vinyl top complementing gorgeous green paint.

As one might imagine, Fusion also upgraded the rest of the mechanicals on this old Road Runner, giving it a modern suspension with new control arms, a tubular K-member, Viking shocks, Wilwood disc brakes at all four corners, and a Dana 60 rear end with 3.54 gears. All of this means that the classic muscle car drives and performs much more like a new one, which isn’t a bad thing by any measure.

During the test drive, our host notes that this Road Runner quite literally does everything well – it’s incredibly quick, it handles well, and it’s super smooth and comfortable when you’re not giving it the beans. And if all of that doesn’t make a great business case for restomods in general, well, we aren’t sure what would.

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Brett Foote

Brett Foote has been covering the automotive industry for over five years and is a longtime contributor to Internet Brands’ Auto Group sites, including Chevrolet Forum, Rennlist, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts, among other popular sites.

He has been an automotive enthusiast since the day he came into this world and rode home from the hospital in a first-gen Mustang, and he's been wrenching on them nearly as long.

In addition to his expertise writing about cars, trucks, motorcycles, and every other type of automobile, Brett had spent several years running parts for local auto dealerships.

You can follow along with his builds and various automotive shenanigans on Instagram: @bfoote.