By GLEN WERLING
Roadrunner, the coyote’s after you. Roadrunner. If he catches you, you’re through.
No one’s going to catch Kenny Flowers’ 1977 Plymouth Volaré Roadrunner.
Flowers’ Mopar-based F-body car from Plymouth carries the optional 360 V-8 4-barrel carb that packs a punch that’s rough on fuel economy but sweet on speed.
“It gets about 11 or 12 miles to the gallon,” smiled Flowers. “Not terrible, but not real good.”
Cars from ’77 were built to run on unleaded gas. Flowers uses premium but sometimes puts in 90 octane, ethanol free gas. “It seems to run a little better with that,” he said.
The transmission is an automatic with the stick on the floor.
The late 70s trim package for the Volaré tends to not get as much respect from muscle car enthusiasts as the earlier Roadrunner models is based on other models from Plymouth. Because of that they can be a bit harder to find.
There were two in Wednesday’s antique and classic car and truck show at the 111th annual Bluffton Free Street Fair, but as the car enthusiasts walked through the row upon row of vehicles parked south of the Bluffton Regional Medical Center on Main Street the comments came to Flowers over and over again how unusual it was to see two Volaré Roadrunners in a parade.
“And this one has a factory sunroof,” Flowers observed. “They supposedly made less than 100 of them with the factory sunroof.”
Flowers had had the car for about 20 years but it sat for awhile before he got around to working on it in 2010. It’s painted the original Plymouth color of Spitfire Orange and includes original graphics.
The color and the bright stripes caught Flowers’ attention. “They really stand out and the sun roof makes it kind of neat.”
He traded for the car with a Hartford City-area man. “I knew him and knew about the car. We ended up doing some trading and I ended up with the car.”
“It ran and drove, but the body panels were rusty,” he said. He found another Volaré that had been left behind by some migrant workers at the old Fremont Company canning factory. It had quit running and they didn’t want it anymore. Since it was from California, the body panels were in good shape so he bought it from them and it became a donor car.
He had other Volarés including Super Coups. He fixed up one and was going to fix up the others so each of his children could have one. “But they thought they were ugly so they didn’t want them,” Flowers said with a laugh. His wife drove a Super Coup every day for a year or more. “It was her everyday car,” Flowers recalled.
Flowers had two Plymouths in the parade Wednesday. His granddaughter was planning to drive the Volaré.
“The kids enjoy it, so that’s the biggest thing. This the first year I’ve driven in the parade for a couple years. I’ve had cars in the parade but the grandkids always drive them. My wife and I just stand and watch.
The two cars in the parade are among seven classic cars Flowers owns.
He was wiping the morning rain from the car as the line-up was taking place. “I drive it quite a bit. I drove it to St. Mary’s, Ohio for the car shows over there. I’ve had it in Fort Wayne. I’ve had it up in Michigan. If I need to drive to the parts store and it’s sitting outside, I drive it to the parts store.”
Flowers has seven classic cars, including a second one that was in Wednesday’s show and parade. He’s always been a Chrysler-Plymouth fan. “Ever since I was in school when they weren’t cool,” he said with a smile.
glenw@news-banner.com
