A man in the United States has successfully located his long-lost 1973 Plymouth Road Runner muscle car, missing for 45 years, with the aid of a single photograph. Barn find expert Tim Fabrizio tracked down the vehicle after a viewer reached out for help. The car, originally rescued from a junkyard, is now returning to its original owner.
Tim Fabrizio, known as The Barn Find King, shared the story on a recent episode of VINwiki’s car stories series. The tale began when a viewer named Todd contacted Fabrizio following his discovery of another rare vehicle, the Victoria’s Secret Lamborghini Diablo SV. Todd sought assistance in finding his project car from the 1970s, a 1973 Plymouth Road Runner he had salvaged from a junkyard.
At the time of rescue, the car was in severe disrepair, lacking fenders and doors, with a damaged chassis. Despite skepticism from his father, Todd transformed it into a drag car by installing a custom tube chassis and a 440ci V8 engine. Financial difficulties in the 1980s compelled him to sell the vehicle without noting its vehicle identification number (VIN), leading him to believe it was gone forever.
Fabrizio took on the challenge armed with only one photograph from a 2000s advertisement. Initially, the VIN in the photo matched a different car, complicating the search. A lead in Michigan proved fruitless, but Fabrizio eventually identified a similar muscle car in Indiana. Closer inspection, including photos revealing a distinctive custom firewall, confirmed it was Todd's original Road Runner.
The current owner agreed to sell the car back to Todd, and it is now en route to him after over four decades away. The Plymouth Road Runner, introduced in 1968 as an affordable muscle car, featured Warner Bros. cartoon branding and a 'beep-beep' horn. Subsequent years brought accolades like Motor Trend’s Car of the Year in 1969 and variants such as the 1970 Superbird, though emissions regulations later diminished its performance until production ended in 1980.