By Joe Oldham
The next run was a 13.57-104.52 .
blast. Gold missed third the first three times because of the lousy linkage. He also wanted to come off higher so we dropped the pressure in the slicks to about 15 psi. Now he could come off at a higher rpm.
speed of 105.14 on the next run. We seemed to be heading in the right direction. More air was bled off. The result? 13.40. Again the shifter loused Marshall up so the mph was a poor 102.85.,Coming off the line now at
about 4500-ipm, Gold made a perfect run, beautifully powershifting al I three times. We were rewarded with a 13.34-106.50 time slip. A little less pressure in the tires on each of the next three runs dropped the et’s to 13.29, 13.27 , 13.27 and 13.25. Trap speeds were 106 and change on every run. One last blast with the car racked off
a fine 13.18 et with a trap speed of 107.01 . Certainly far f rom the high t 2’s with street tires that the other mag had reported. But we felt that we had proven our point-the 440 6-Bbl. Road Runner is a helluva running car.
On the street where it can really do its thing, there’s not much out there that can stay with it. Chrysler product
planners envision the 6-8bl. as the future ruler of the street. With that big flat-black scooped hood and gobs of
torque from the 440,we didn’t think it could miss.
On the strip, we felt it was a different story. NHRA had already factored the engine to 410 horsepower and frankly we thought it would be a class loser. On the street, though, it’s what the Road Runner should have been a long time ago.