Overview

By the late 60s, some of the early popular muscle cars like the Mustang, Camaro, and GTO had strayed from their roots as inexpensive fast cars due to their growing number of standard features and higher prices. Many young people who wanted a high-performance muscle car didn't really have many budget-friendly options.

Plymouth had the answer. Introduced for the 1968 model year, the Plymouth Road Runner had a big impact on the American muscle car scene. Based on the Chrysler B Platform, shared with the more humble Belvedere, Plymouth took the frugal underpinnings of this more mainstream model and turned things up to eleven in terms of the performance hardware on offer.

The Road Runner vouched to give muscle car buyers a more back-to-basics offering at an affordable price. Now although positioned as a more entry-level option, Plymouth chose a brilliant marketing model to portray the Road Runners' appeal. They wanted to capitalize on the name based on the popular Cartoon that featured Wylie E. Coyote chasing the blazing-fast Road Runner from the 50s.

Plymouth paid Warner Brothers a hefty $50,000 to use the name and the rest as you know is history. The famous Beep Beep horn along with the cartoon decals on the bodywork of these iconic cars are synonymous with the Road Runner even today. The campaign paid off and Plymouth managed to shift close to 45,000 examples within the first year, a number far higher than their initial estimate of 20,000 units. In fact, the Road Runner was so successful that the Dodge Super Bee's very existence can owe credit to it.

Plymouth Road Runner Performance and Capability

Now folks in their 20s and 30s who bought muscle cars on a budget didn't really mind the cars' basic cabins and lack of customization. Instead, what they really wanted was high-performance features like a heavy-duty suspension, dual exhaust, and a high-displacement V8 under the hood, which is exactly what the Road Runner delivered.

As standard equipment, the Road Runner featured Chrysler’s 383 cubic inch V8 which put out 335 horsepower. For ’68 and ’69, the Road Runner was also offered with Chrysler's storied 425-horsepower, 426 cubic inch big block HEMI V8 for an additional cost of $714. A more potent 440 cubic inch, big block V8 with three, two-barrel carburetors dubbed the 'six pack' put out 390 gross horsepower and was part of the engine lineup for 1969 and 1970.

Equipped with either the 440 six-pack or a 426 HEMI, and the lack of unnecessary gubbins that plagued some of its rivals, the lightweight Road Runner was one of the quickest cars of its day. The 426 HEMI-powered Road Runners could hit 60 mph in 5.3-seconds and it had a mid-13-second quarter-mile time. All Road Runner engines came with a standard four-speed manual transmission and an optional three-speed Torqueflite automatic transmission.

1969 also saw the introduction of a new accessory called the Air Grabber. It featured two sets of rectangular, upward-pointing vents in the hood covered by Raleigh red vent screens and a fiberglass air duct assembly bolted to the underside of the hood.

A sticker reading "air grabber" adorned the front of the fiberglass hood box. You also got a Coyote Duster decal on the air cleaner assembly whose primary function was to direct more air into the engine. An under-dash lever controlled the hood vents that directed air into the engine. Given its steller run, the Road Runner was the 1969 Motortrend Car of the Year.

Exterior Design

The first-gen Road Runner came in three body styles:

- Coupe

- Hardtop

- Convertible

Initially only offered as a two-door coupe, a two-door hardtop version joined the lineup. While a pillar was present on the two-door coupe, the hardtop didn’t feature one. A convertible option was also available for the 1969 and 1970 model years.

Coming to the styling, the exterior design of the 1968-1970 Road Runner was truly outstanding. The seamless integration of Road Runner's exterior components was a stroke of genius. The most visually arresting features are the side windows and curved body panels. It had a fuselage shape like the Chrysler "bee" cars.

The first-gen Road Runner’s basic design remained largely unchanged, with the exception of a few minor tweaks to the grille, headlights, taillights, and side marker lights. The 440 ditched the chrome wheel covers and hub caps and instead featured steel wheels. Another distinctive element was its fiberglass hood with four hood pins.

Overall, with its semi-fastback roof line and a squarish front and rear design, the Road Runner is a handsome car. It does share a lot of the sheet metal with other b-body cars produced by Chrysler Corporation, including the Plymouth Duster and the Plymouth Barracuda.

The platform was also used by one of the best-looking muscle cars of all time, the 1968 Dodge Charger. On the contrary, the Road Runner never really got all the bling factor that came with the Dodge.

Interior

In terms of the cabin appointments, the 1968 Road Runner was as stripped down as it got. After all, people buying the Road Runner didn’t really care so much about the bare-bones interior. For them, performance reigned supreme over everything else.

So it comes as no surprise that the Road Runner shared a lot with the Belvedere. For ’68, you got a fairly basic dash and bench seats. To accommodate the bench, the Road Runner didn’t feature a center console and the floor-mounted shifter had a rubber boot. Early models didn’t even get carpets. Bucket seats and a center console are nice to have, but they cost extra.

By the 1970 model year, the list of available customizations had been significantly expanded to cater to the needs of customers seeking a muscle car with a wider range of features. In 1970, round gauges for the dashboard became the norm.

The SuperBird

We can’t talk Road Runner and not mention the Superbird. It was a car designed solely to meet NASCAR's requirements for exterior modifications before it could compete in races. Chrysler first entered the NASCAR aero wars in 1969 with the Dodge Charger 500, which was significantly more aerodynamic than a regular 1969 Charger.

Plymouth also wanted to have a go at NASCAR and in 1970, they released their own limited-edition variant of the Road Runner called the Superbird. It featured a taller rear wing, a redesigned roof, and pop-up headlights in the nose cone. The unique nose extended the car by 19 inches, and the trunk spoiler was sharper and higher than on the Daytona.

You could have the Plymouth Superbird with all of the Road Runner's engines, barring the 383 V8 and the base engine was the 440. The Superbird was a racing success in 1970, but that would be its last year of production.

Plymouth Road Runner Price, Availability and Ownership

As one of the most recognizable muscle cars of the 1970s, the Road Runner was and is an icon. Between 1969 and 1970, Plymouth made them in large numbers with production in excess of 170,000 units, comprising of 2,952 convertibles and 1,935 Superbirds. Finding one today in decent shape could prove to be a challenge though.

Coming to how much Road Runners cost, Plymouth undoubtedly considered many factors before settling on the Road Runner's price. The sticker price of a 1968 Road Runner, for instance, was just $2,549, making it considerably lower than the competition, many of which started at well over $3,000.

Fast forward to today and the first-gen Road Runners still remain desirable with average sales prices hovering around the $60,000 mark, according to Classic.com. Values depend on the level of originality and given the level of permutations and combinations possible at the time, the rarer once are more sought after.

The issue with the Road Runner in particular is that it shares a lot with Belvederes and Satellites. So, finding one that's the real thing can be tricky. Here's a detailed guide from the CollectorCarMarket that takes a more in-depth look at stuff like the desirable options you want if you're considering looking to acquire a Road Runner.

As a result of its meteoric rise to fame owing to its successful stint at NASCAR, the Superbird is highly sought after and now sells at exorbitant prices on the collector car market. You're looking at an average price of $230,745 for a Plymouth Superbird. Only 75 of the 1,935 examples feature a HEMI under the hood.

So, to summarize, the original Plymouth Road Runner was a genuine performance muscle car that even the most modest of households back in the day could afford. But by 1970, the newly introduced Duster was even cheaper than the Road Runner, which in a way stole its thunder. Either way here are 15 Little-Known Facts About The Plymouth Road Runner.

Also, check out this quick montage that touches upon the history of the Road Runner