Plymouth Road Runner

A muscle car built down to a price

By 1967 muscle cars had become expensive, with options and trim pushing prices up. Plymouth's idea was the opposite: take its mid-size two-door, remove most of the comfort items, fit a big V8 and heavy-duty parts, and sell it for less than a Pontiac GTO or Plymouth's own GTX. Plymouth paid Warner Bros.-Seven Arts a licence fee for the Road Runner cartoon character and spent extra money developing a horn that went "beep, beep"; the horn cost Plymouth one fifth of the licence fee.

Plymouth's other famous muscle car of the period is covered on the Plymouth Barracuda page.

From 45,000 sales to a Volaré trim package

Plymouth expected to sell about 20,000 Road Runners in 1968 and sold about 45,000. A hardtop was added during the first year, and for 1969 a convertible followed, of which 2,128 were built, only ten with the Hemi. 1969 was the high point: 81,125 cars for the home market and the Motor Trend award. By our calculation that is 80% more than the first year's 45,000.

In 1970 sales fell by more than half, to about 41,000, as insurance companies added surcharges to muscle cars and the cheaper Duster 340 took buyers. The convertible ended that year after 834 cars. The 1971 car had a new, rounded "fuselage" body. Emission rules then cut power year by year: in 1972 ratings switched to SAE net figures and the Hemi was dropped, and in 1973 a 318 V8 of about 127 kW (170 hp net) became the base engine, although sales rose by about 40% that year.

In 1975 the Road Runner moved to the larger Fury body, selling only 7,183 cars, and from 1976 it became a trim and graphics package on the compact Volaré coupé. The last ones were built for the 1980 model year.

Plain body, heavy-duty hardware

The first Road Runner kept the plain Belvedere body with a bench seat, rubber floor mats and a column-mounted gear selector on automatic cars. Spending went where it mattered for speed: heavy-duty suspension, bigger brakes and a strong rear axle. The 1968–1970 cars used Chrysler's unibody B platform with torsion-bar front suspension and leaf springs at the rear. Wide steel wheels and twin exhausts were standard, and a functional "Air Grabber" bonnet scoop became an option in 1969.

From 1971 the redesigned body was wider and smoother, with a narrower glass area. The 1973–1974 cars had squarer panels and heavier bumpers, as US crash rules required.

383, 440 Six Barrel and the 426 Hemi

The standard 1968 engine was a 383 cubic-inch (6.3-litre) V8 rated at about 250 kW (335 hp gross), with a four-speed manual as standard and the three-speed TorqueFlite automatic as an option. The 426 Hemi was an expensive option, rated at about 317 kW (425 hp gross). For 1969 Plymouth added the 440 cubic-inch (7.2-litre) "Six Barrel" with three two-barrel carburettors and about 291 kW (390 hp gross); about 1,432 were built that year.

In 1970 a heavy-duty three-speed manual replaced the four-speed as standard. The 1971 cars kept the Hemi and the 440+6 for the last time and added a 340, while the 383 was detuned to about 224 kW (300 hp). From 1972 the base engine was a 400, and the 440 was rated at about 209 kW (280 hp net).

Road Runner engine and performance data

Gross ratings (before 1972) measure an engine without accessories and are higher than the net figures that replaced them, so the drop in the table overstates the real loss. Compare these outputs with modern cars in the most powerful coupés ranking.

Convertible, Superbird and the later Road Runners

The Superbird was Plymouth's answer to the Dodge Charger Daytona. It had a pointed nose cone and a rear wing about 60 cm (two feet) tall, built so that Richard Petty would return to Plymouth for the 1970 NASCAR season. Of the 1,935 cars, 135 had the Hemi. NASCAR then changed its rules for 1971 to limit the engines of such aerodynamic cars, and the Superbird was built for one year only.

Collecting a Plymouth Road Runner today

The Road Runner showed that a muscle car could be cheap, and rivals followed with budget models of their own. It also became a film car: Dominic Toretto drives a 1970 Road Runner in the closing scenes of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Today the 1968–1971 cars, especially the Hemi, the 440 Six Barrel and the Superbird, are the collectible ones; the 1975–1980 cars are much cheaper and much slower.

A buyer should check:

1. Authenticity: fender tags and VINs confirm the original engine and options; many Hemi and Superbird "clones" exist.
2. Rust: rear quarter panels, the boot floor, the floor pans and the vinyl-roof edges.
3. Drivetrain: the Dana 60 rear axle on four-speed Hemi and 440+6 cars, and the condition of the TorqueFlite.
4. Parts: reproduction panels and trim are widely available for the B-body cars.

Other muscle cars of the period, such as the Pontiac GTO, are listed among the best classic cars of the 1960s.