Lifelong Infatuation ’72 Road Runner

Lifelong Infatuation ’72 Road Runner

Dennis McMillan became obsessed with long-nosed B-bodies when he was only thirteen. He visited a cousin back east, and a friend of his had a black ’71 Satellite; the boy instantly fell in love with the car. He spent the rest of that trip reading his cousin’s Mopar magazines he had laying everywhere, and before the trip was over, he knew he had to have one of these things. Being a lad on a limited budget in high school (weren’t we all), Dennis managed to find a B5 blue ’72 Road Runner that was a hot mess and was largely taken apart. He brought most of the car home in boxes, and over the course of the next few years, he restored it back to largely stock specs, with a few minor updates, and he had it ready for graduation and ran the wheels off it for the next two decades. Then, seeing more and more people doing long-distance tours and eyeing the RestoMod cars, he decided it was time for some major and radical updates for his faithful steed. He managed to find a 2010 Challenger SRT in a local salvage yard that made an excellent donor vehicle, and doing most of the work himself, Dennis transformed the ‘Runner into the seriously slick blue cruiser you see here. The car now sports the SRT New Gen Hemi, backed by a six-speed stick. He also moved most of the Challenger’s interior over to the B-body. Actually, he moved almost everything that was left of the SRT over to the Road Runner! It’s now got SRT giant slotted rotors, ABS, traction control, the navigation system, tpms sensors, a killer sound system, and, Dennis can even activate the “beep beep” horn with his key fob now. The car’s a lot more sinister now in it’s second ground-up rebuild, but being only forty-six now, we highly expect there will still be more changes down the road for the deep blue screamer. In the meantime, this one is living proof that an individual can build something that looks every bit as good as most custom shops even on a working guy’s budget. If you’ve got the elbow grease, the time, and a halfway decent workshop, here’s proof that anything’s possible.