Speed-loving Road Runner Is a Bona Fide Track Day Terror
Gorgeous 1969 Road Runner consistently runs 11s at the drag strip on factory size tires and makes over 500 horsepower on a stock engine.
For those who aren’t aware, FAST is not just a word to describe a powerful and quickly moving car. It is also an acronym that stands for “Factory Appearing Stock Tire,” which is a drag racing class in which muscle cars are made to go as fast as possible while maintaining their stock appearance. It’s a challenging class because adding more power only makes it harder to launch a car on stock tires.
Hot Rod brings us this article about Mark and Gwen Sikora and their FAST 1969 Road Runner. Though it looks quite stock, and that is precisely the point, this thing is packing quite a punch under the hood.
Though the engine may look quite stock, the insides tell a different story.
“it’s about as basic as the factory 383. I just added a stroker crank, ported heads/intake, and solid cam. I had Bruce from Toth Performance build a block that would run on pump gas and have some longevity. It ended up being 499 ci. Bigger is usually better when it comes to making power,” says Sikora
The result of these efforts is 505 horsepower, which is more than enough to spin some six-inch wide Firestone redlines.
With all that power, a lot of the struggle putting it to the ground comes with the transmission. Sikora was once told to drive the car like there’s an egg on the gas pedal. Properly setting up the transmission and torque converter combined with careful throttle control is essential in FAST racing.
“The idea is to launch the car well under peak torque to keep the tires from breaking loose as you roll on the gas. For me, that’s about 2,000 rpm. It’s worked very well, but at this point, I’m looking to squeeze all the mph I can out of it. Frank is currently building me an 11” converter to try next season. A bigger converter should still launch well. But it will also be more efficient going down the track,” says Sikora
The fact that this car still runs the factory rear end and drum brakes at all four corners makes its performance all the more impressive. Sikora has managed a 1.7 second 60 foot, which is a bit of an enigma considering the tires he is running. To keep the stock appearance, he also runs the original cast iron intake manifold and exhaust manifolds. This class truly has some tight restrictions, but Sikora is making do quite well. It consistently runs 11s, and his best pass is 11.77 at 115 mph.
Sikora says he and his wife also take the car out to cruise nights, drive it on the streets, and attend nostalgia drags with it as well. This old Road Runner is an excellent all-around car, and we would love to have something like this in the garage.
Photos: Hot Rod
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