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Accelerateus Maximus
The
Rise and Fall of the Plymouth Road Runner
By
Crystal Stern - Hemicat
Green
light, tires squealing then biting in to the
pavement and snapping your neck back, banging gears,
the car next to you almost keeping up until the
horsepower kicks in and you honk your horn,
beep-beep! vrooommmm you’re gone. Muscle cars are
about cheap thrills, raw power barely under control,
but in the mid 1960’s high performance cars were
usually fully optioned, luxury machines, that were
beyond the budget of most car buyers. Plymouth saw
a need for a return to basics and the Road Runner
was born.
Built
as a mid-priced car, placed between the Belvedere
and Satellite lines, the Road Runner felt like a
stripped down version of the luxuriously fast GTX.
This B-body platform made it light weight while
still giving enough structure and space to handle a
massive engine with high horsepower. This new breed
of muscle car packed maximum excitement with minimum
price.
The
Road Runner was not a fragile sports car; it was
built for serious abuse on the street and the strip.
The car was tough enough to survive taking bumps and
handled well. Being faster than most police cars,
moonshine runners reportedly favored the car, which
is humorous considering that the Warner Brothers
cartoon is often considered to be a parody of
bootleggers outrunning the cops.
Motivation was supplied by the 383 Road Runner
engine, the tried and true 383ci wedge combined with
the heads, manifolds, cam, valve train and windage
tray from the race ready 440 Super Commando. The
result was 335 horsepower and 425 foot pounds of
torque. And this power was linked to the ground
through the 4-speed and a standard 3.23:1 Sure Grip
8¾ inch rear end. This was a no nonsense street
machine, with this package you could seriously smoke
the tires.
More
bang for your buck? There was the one optional
engine package- the Hemi. For $714 you got a 426
Hemi crammed into a car that would run mid 13 second
quarter mile times straight off the showroom floor.
The Hemi threw the budget to the wind, but the power
was worth it, and look at the capital appreciation
over thirty some years. The Hemi option created the
ultimate street machine, giving you a car pretty
much guaranteed to win, racing block to block.
Small
Road Runner badges adorned the doors, with little
stickers of the infamous cartoon bird right above.
Plymouth paid $50,000 to Warner Brothers for the
rights to affix the cartoon image onto a stripped
Belvedere coupe body. A horn that went “beep-beep,”
just like in cartoons, complimented the Road Runner
decals, which were grey due to a crunch in
production time.
The
Road Runner was free of glitz mostly to reduce
weight. The standard trim was a stainless steel
grille, chrome bumpers front and rear, and chrome
headlight and taillight bezels. A hardtop coupe and
functional hood vents were added mid year. Color
options were slim, inside and out. Front and rear
bench seats, rubber floor mats and no radio or trim,
left plenty of space for the 4-speed shifter
controlling the A833 manual transmission. Most
options available were for power, not looks.
For a
car costing less than $3000, the Road Runner was
budget performance at its finest. Plymouth had
originally estimated selling 2,500 Road Runners in
1968, and it actually sold 45,000. Due to the
successful introduction of the ’68 Road Runner,
Plymouth decided to expand the available options.
For 1969 a convertible was added to the existing
hardtop and post car body styles. Bucket seats were
now an option. The Road Runner decals were in full
color.
Midyear
the 440 Six Pack setup was added, featuring three
two barrel carbs and a flat black fiberglass
lift-off hood with a functional scoop. This engine
provided Hemi caliber power for half the cost,
continuing the legacy of the Road Runner being the
budget hot rod. Plymouth made the right decisions
in 1969, with buyers snatching up almost 90,000 Road
Runners, as well as having the car be honored with
Car and Driver Magazine’s “Car of the Year” award.
Redesigned front and rear styling marked the Road
Runner’s entrance into the 70’s. The “Six Pack”
hood was replaced with the optional “Air Grabber.”
This consisted of an under dash switch operating a
trap door on the hood. Push the switch, and out
popped a functional hood scoop. Talk about mother
Mopar giving us ways to psyche out the competition!
The engine choices remained the same for 1970,
although the Hemi went from solid to hydraulic
lifters to improve durability. Also a beefed up
three speed manual transmission became standard and
the 4-speed was now an option.
Also
new for 1970 was the one year special- the
Superbird. Plymouth built the Superbird solely to
qualify for NASCAR on the basis of producing one for
every two dealerships. The Superbird featured an
aerodynamic extended nose, concealed headlights, and
a tall stabilizer wing on the rear. The car had a
drag coefficient of only .28 which is better than
many cars rolling off the production lines today!
The Superbird was capable of speeds well over 150mph
stock. However it suffered a bad commercial
reputation as it was considered ugly by the public
and the dealers complained that they couldn’t give
them away. The Superbird came with a 440-4bbl
engine standard, but it also was available with a
440-Six Pack or 426 Hemi. The Superbird decals were
no less impressive with a huge Road Runner holding a
helmet on the massive rear spoiler.
The
Road Runner was completely redesigned for 1971 with
the “fuselage” body style the rage at Plymouth. The
style seemed futuristic, with integral
bumper/grilles and down sweeping curved panels. The
new design gave the impression that someone had
squished down the old Road Runner like a bug until
the sides bulged out. The hardtop was now the only
body style offered. The total sales dropped to
14,218 Road Runners, including 55 with Hemis. The
sales suffered largely because of insurance
regulations that penalized people for owning cars
with high horsepower engines. The sun was setting
on the Golden Age of Muscle Cars, but that didn’t
deter Richard Petty who won his third Grand National
NASCAR championship in his brilliant blue, #43, 1971
Hemi Road Runner. He later said the “coke-bottle”
bodied Road Runners were his personal favorites of
all the cars he raced.
Federal
mandates were coming down to lower emissions and
improve fuel economy. The Hemi was no longer
available in 1972, and the Six Pack, while
officially offered, was not very readily available
to the public; many people who pre-ordered the 440
Six Pack option received 440 4-barrel cars instead.
Now the lightweight yet powerful 340ci small block
V-8 was available. The 383 became the 400, which
had lower compression and therefore horsepower from
the factory. However it is now a desirable block to
use for building a stroker, creating 474 cubes with
a turned 440 crank, or using a custom stroker crank
to produce up to 512 cubic inches of horsepower
building cylinder volume. As the old saying that
goes, “there’s no replacement for displacement,” and
that proves true as the cheapest way to build
horsepower. The GTX was no longer an independent
car line, but an option on the Road Runner that was
available only with the 440 engine. Only 7,628 Road
Runners were produced in 1972, the poorest selling
year yet.
The
basic sheet metal was the same for ’73, but the
overall look was far more conservative. Gone was
the loop type bumper/grille and in its place was a
double deck grid pattern insert and a single power
bulge hood. The Road Runner now came standard with
the mild-mannered but practically indestructible 318
with 170 hp, such a far cry from the high
performance engines just a few years prior. The 400
and 440 were offered as options, and the Six Pack
induction was officially unavailable. While not as
fast as before, the new cars were safer and more
sophisticated and this reflected in improved sales.
In 1974 the 360 replaced the 340 option and the
standard two barrel 318 only put out a pathetic
150hp. The performance age had ended, the last of
the intermediary line of cars, and the last Road
Runner to offer a 440, it now came with two horns
and carpet making the final descent into grocery
getter land, signaling the end of the muscle car
era.
The
Road Runner took a one year trip over to the
Plymouth Fury line in 1975, which had just moved
from the C to the B body style. Plymouth was trying
hard to hold on to its muscular roots, but the
emissions and safety laws took all the power and
style out of the once beautiful bird, as it was now
just a low end luxury car option.
Trying
to keep the Road Runner name alive, Plymouth stuck
it onto the new Volare platform in 1976 as
predominately a trim option. The Volare was
designated to be the replacement for the economical
and extremely popular Plymouth Valiant, of which ’76
was the final year. Now the engines ranged in the
pitiful economy class with your choice of a two
barrel 318 or 360. The Volare Road Runner package
also included heavy duty suspension, a three speed
floor shift, and a sporty interior trim package.
The
first use of an on-board engine computer was
Chrysler’s Lean Burn system unveiled upon the ’77
Plymouth Road Runner. The Road Runner option was
offered as either a standard beauty package or as
the “Road Runner Super Pak” which consisted of front
and rear spoilers, colorful stripes, window louvers
and Rallye wheels. For 1978 and 1979 very little on
the Volare Road Runners changed.
Both
the Road Runner and Volare said sayonara in 1980, as
Plymouth shifted its focus to building the K-car.
The Volare Road Runner sported a new look with
parking lamps set between the crosshatch grille and
headlights, somewhat resembling the Valiant Scamps
of the early 70’s. There was a return to the
blacked out grille and trim, and vinyl interior of
the original Runners, giving the car one final
dignified breath.
There
is still a chance to resurrect the Road Runner and
have it make a triumphant return onto the new car
market. Just hopefully this time Chrysler will make
it a performance oriented car again, perhaps with
the new hemi, rather than condemning it as simply a
beauty package, henceforth sucking the life from its
past glory.
The
Road Runner was an ideal mixture of tough muscle car
styling and hot rod power. It captured the
imagination of the public, reaching into generations
past its time. Who can resist a car horn that goes
“beep-beep!” or the cartoon logos of the roadrunner
outrunning the coyote? As kids we grew up thinking
the roadrunner is fast, and we still do, but in a
different context. Beep-beep!
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