[Jeff Higgins]

Yeah, I was very young at the time, but I still remember when my Uncle Jim showed up with his Hemi Roadrunner. Must have been '69 or '70, making me nine or ten years old. He must have made an impression, because I very clearly remember him grousing about it not being a "real" Hemi anymore.

His buddies with the '66/'67 Hemi cars (whose experiences no doubt led him into buying his) apparently gave him a hard time about it as well, as did my dad. My dad was driving a '66 Sport Fury with a 383 ahead of the 727 Torqueflite automatic. He had no trouble keeping up with his brother (I think we are back to tires again, plus the auto was easier to handle than Uncle Jim's four speed). All of that seemed to piss my uncle off no end.

Oh well, he didn't have to suffer for long. He left the Road Runner at home one day, driving the family Vista Cruiser to work so he could pick up some stuff on the way home. Meanwhile, my cousin gets sick at school, and my aunt has to go retrieve him... in the Road Runner...

They had a slight downhill driveway, and she had to back the car up it to get out. She told us all she killed it several times trying to baby it back up the driveway and then, out of frustration, gave it way too much gas. Wound up backing it into the neighbor's living room across the street. Other than scratching the paint, it didn't hurt the car in the least, since it was mostly window she drove through.

Unfortunately, however, that was the end of the Hemi Road Runner for my Uncle Jim. Wife was pretty mad, insurance cancelled, etc. I did inherit that Sport Fury, though, which wound up being my second car after my '67 GTO. I never looked back - wound up with a string of four more big block MOPARs. Wish I had kept one of them at least...