AMT `68 Roadrunner

[69NovaYenko]

Today I was on the AMT site and read that they intend to release a newly tooled `68 Plymouth Road Runner sometime in September 2013. The new Roadrunner will have a highly detailed chassis and the interior builds up platform style which will make detailing and painting the interior a whole lot easier. There will be two build versions, one will be a stock version and the other will be a street machine version. I was wondering if anyone can shed additional light on new AMT release i.e. the online picture shows the car with a vinyl roof, will that be molded in, what is the engine displacement (please let it be something other than a 426 Hemi), will it be bucket or bench seats ( please let them be bench) etc.

[moparfarmer]

Sounds like the original one released many years ago. Sure hope the do though...

[IMPALASS89]

I hope amt fixes the body on this one fury3 can tell you how much he had to fix the body to make it correct lets hope so.

[Casey]

the online picture shows the car with a vinyl roof, will that be molded in, what is the engine displacement (please let it be something other than a 426 Hemi), will it be bucket or bench seats ( please let them be bench) etc.

It won't be molded in like the Revell '69 Charger's vinyl roof was/is, and the engine is an RB-series 440 Hemi.

Can't recall if the kit includes a bench seat or buckets, though.

[Rob Hall]

I assume it will be just a straight reissue of the '68 kit...that picture w/ the vinyl top is a pic of someone's car parked in a driveway, (the original image turns up in a Google search on '68 Road Runners), probably not indicative of the kit, don't think they'd add a vinyl top.

[Erik Smith]

"Produced from modern-engineered tooling" is not the same as "new tooling". This is a rerun.

[High octane]

Today I was on the AMT site and read that they intend to release a newly tooled `68 Plymouth Road Runner sometime in September 2013. The new Roadrunner will have a highly detailed chassis and the interior builds up platform style which will make detailing and painting the interior a whole lot easier. There will be two build versions, one will be a stock version and the other will be a street machine version. I was wondering if anyone can shed additional light on new AMT release i.e. the online picture shows the car with a vinyl roof, will that be molded in, what is the engine displacement (please let it be something other than a 426 Hemi), will it be bucket or bench seats ( please let them be bench) etc.

The engine should be a 383 as that was the stock engine for the '68 Road Runner with the Hemi being an option.

[JasonC]

It won't be molded in like the Revell '69 Charger's vinyl roof was/is, and the engine is an RB-series 440.

Can't recall if the kit includes a bench seat or buckets, though.

68 Road Runners got 383's... So i'm guessing they are just taking the 440 out of the 69 GTX kit and including it into this kit then just call it a 383? Also are they going to give us the correct air cleaner and pie pan for the 68?

[Chuck Kourouklis]

If it's a straight reissue of the '89 kit (some 24-year-old "modern" tooling right there) - and the "street machine" notes about wheel and engine options indicate it will be - it'll have a bench and the hemi.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Chuck Kourouklis

[Longbox55]

The Round 2 site doesn't specify an engine. Most likely, its a straight reissue of the Roadrunner kit, which has a Hemi/4 speed combo. The original kit did include custom wheels, I believe they were Centerlines, don't remember the exact style. They were somewhat of a dated design when the kit was new, very 1980s.

[Fabrux]

I wonder if they will also reissue the Pro Street version?

[george 53]

At that scale there isn't much difference between a 383 and a 440. WHY WOULD AMT bring out a NEW kit, when they ALREADY have a state of the art kit? Just to have a vynil top??? Personally, I think this is just AMT's way of gettin a few more miles outta a popular mold.Oh an the 68 AMT RoadRunner already has a bench seat. They came standard.

[Fabrux]

Did the Pro Street version also have the bench seat included in addition to the race seats?

[pack rat]

To avoid any confusion re the vinyl top, the picture on the website has just been changed

[Chuck Kourouklis]

That, or to show off some new retro box art -

which, dammit, more often than not results in me buying one.

[Longbox55]

Did the Pro Street version also have the bench seat included in addition to the race seats?

I have an original issue of that one. It's not handy at the moment, but when I get a chance I'll check it.

[charlie8575]

Aside from the not-quite rear wheel openings, what else is wrong with the body?

Charlie Larkin

[doggie427]

Aside from the not-quite rear wheel openings, what else is wrong with the body?

Charlie Larkin

I never liked the shape of the bottom edge of the quarters behind the rear wheelwells. To my eye they look angled upwards, more like the Coronet quarters. The RoadRunner bottoms should be more parallel to the ground.

Edited August 8, 2013 by doggie427

[drodg]

Cool box art now that they have posted the yellow Roadrunner

[Sport Suburban]

I have always loved this kit and have built many. The earlier versions had the emblems cast on and later one didn't. I hope the emblems reappear.

This is also a great parts kit for updating many of the older MPC and Johan B body mopars. That is why I have so many of them. I evenly built one as a 68 GTX and a 69 Roadrunner 440 6 BBL.

[johnbuzzed]

I built the original issue back in 1991 and had no complaints- well, the taillights were awful, but that's about it. That kit had the pro street optional parts; that's how I built it. I was happy when it won a couple of contest awards. I built a second one of the same issue more or less "factory stock" a few years later. The first build was a parting gift to a friend who was moving and was subsequently, accidentally destroyed (sat on, I believe). The stock build languishes in a box somewhere (I think), perhaps in our garage after out own relocation.

I am now working on the millennium issue that I bought in... 2000(?); this one does not have the Road Runner emblems, nor can you find any reference on the box art or the instructions or decals. This was probably due to licensing- I guess Warner Bros. wanted a lot of $$$. I don't think this issue had the pro street tubs but it does have a majority of the other pro street stuff. The engine is a Hemi with induction options and ugly headers; the driver sits on a bench seat (one does not sit in a bench seat). The taillights still suck, but I can better deal with that now. Also, the right side rocker panel suffered from a short shot- it looks like just a little more plastic could have been injected. I'm fixing that with some strip styrene. This one is being built as an early '80s street machine.

It has some nice molded-in detail and plenty of additional detail parts and it's rather "delicately" molded. I'm not saying it's perfect, nor is the chassis up to current Revell B-body standards but this kit has a lot of potential and can be combined with different motors/transmissions/rear ends and other readily available kit parts to build several variations of Plymouth's B-body. It would be great if one of the aftermarket companies (Model Car Garage, maybe?) could create a photoetched detail set for it. Overall, it's a nice kit and if Round 2 corrected that problem with the rocker panel for the upcoming re-re-issue, I'll buy another one or two or three or more- even with the awful taillights.

Edited August 9, 2013 by johnbuzzed

[zenrat]

They need to lose the "cut here" lines on the inside of the bonnet (hood).

[johnbuzzed]

That would be welcome. If I remember correctly, that's for clearance for one of the induction setups... I think. I think there are also tabs for locating the "Coyote Duster" setup. I'd like to see the one piece, "440 6 BBL" fiberglass lift-off hood w/scoop as used on the '69 cars in this kit, too. Nothing wrong with a little retrofit.

[JasonC]

Did they put the Air Grabber setup in the 68 kit? Cause it was never on a 1:1 68.

[johnbuzzed]

No, they used the "Coyote Duster" in the '68 kit (and the real car).