1968 Plymouth Road Runner

[Hemi Moose]

[Dyno]

In 1979 I bought a new Z 28 and drove it through the summer. Because I live in Minnesota and they salt the roads daily from early November to the end of March, I wanted to put the Camaro away for the winter. So I started to look for a good winter beater that I could sell in the spring and not lose alot of money on. I found a 40,000 mile 69 Roadrunner for sale for $1500.00 that was a 383/auto and drove that through the winter. It started every day, even at -30 degree mornings. It was a little hard on gas, so I checked the rear gear, turned out to be a 3.91. I pulled it out and put in a 3.08 I think, funny thing is it turned it from a fun car to drive to a total slug, plus my mileage never really improved. I kept the car for two years and sold it for $2000.00 Never thought my "beater" would be more valuable than the Camaro. Like many, wish I had it back. Dyno

[Jeff Lee]

In early 80's a friend had a '70 RR with 440-6 and a column shifted 727. Dana 4.10 & Air Grabber. It was Vitamin C with white bench interior and the "Trail Duster" side strip. I still think that is one of the best looking cars. This car was bone stock, mufflers and OEM style tires. He was obsessed with minimizing the ET in complete factory stock condition. He got it down to 13.72. I remember driving the car. I have to believe with slicks it would have gone into the twelves because from a 25-35 MPH role and dropping it into low, it was an animal. Wish I could remember the MPH it produced because that would be telling.

In the late '80's a friend restored an A12 Super Bee. 440 Six Barrel, 4-speed, 3.54 Dana. All stock except it did have higher compression domed pistons. At the same time, I restored a '66 HEMI Satellite with 4-speed and 3.54 Dana. We raced 3 times on a back road. I wish I had video. Classic B body HEMI vs. Six-Pack, same trans, same gears. Each race was the same. Six-Pack has the lead in first and second with the HEMI making up lost ground at the top of second, third gear the HEMI is dead even, forth gear the HEMI puts a fender on the Six-Pack and by the top of 4th, the HEMI is a fender and maybe part of a door ahead. In a typical in-town street race the Six-Pack would be the victor. Of course the Six-Pack did have some more compression than stock.

What is also interesting is the GTX vs. RR. The GTX came standard with a 440/375 and was a little bit heavier. The RR was standard with a 383 and you had two engine options; Six-Pack ('69 or '70) or HEMI ('68-'70 not counting the '71 models). In my mind, the GTX should be worth more than a 383 RR. But that's not the case in today's muscle car market. The RR is hands down the winner over a 440 GTX. And the '68-'70 RR will out sell the '68-'70 Super Bee.

Bill,
The same guy that had the '70 RR above also had a '64 Signet. It was a well known early '70's street racer in the Phoenix area. It was built by a guy that cut weight out of everything. A100 seats, home made aluminum single resivoir master cylinder, aluminum nuts and bolts and acid dipped body parts. It was plain silver. When my friend owned it, he had a bone stock '70 340 with cast exhaust manifolds in it with an A833 & 4.56's. It ran high 11's. He added a cam, fenderwell headers, a hi-rise and Holley and it was a 10 second car. This was around 1980 and a 10 second 340 was pretty darn
fast. Neil Smedly owned the car for awhile and he sold it to somebody. The car has completely dropped off the radar. I'm sure it's a roach by now but I sure would love to own that car.

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by Dyno

In 1979 I bought a new Z 28 and drove it through the summer. Because I live in Minnesota and they salt the roads daily from early November to the end of March, I wanted to put the Camaro away for the winter. So I started to look for a good winter beater that I could sell in the spring and not lose alot of money on. I found a 40,000 mile 69 Roadrunner for sale for $1500.00 that was a 383/auto and drove that through the winter. It started every day, even at -30 degree mornings. It was a little hard on gas, so I checked the rear gear, turned out to be a 3.91. I pulled it out and put in a 3.08 I think, funny thing is it turned it from a fun car to drive to a total slug, plus my mileage never really improved. I kept the car for two years and sold it for $2000.00 Never thought my "beater" would be more valuable than the Camaro. Like many, wish I had it back. Dyno

Had to be a 2.73 or a 3.23 rear gear. Jim

.

[Jeff Kempton]

[QUOTE=Paul Ceasrine;283932]The famous 1968 Road Runner 'Beep Beep Horn'



Paul;

I have an original Road Runner horn like this, but the body of the horn is painted the same purple as the cartoon bird's head. It looks like factory paint and I assumed they were all that way, but I see this one is black. A buddy of mine has one that he added to his '76 Volare Road Runner back when he bought it new, and it's purple also. Maybe ours are a Canadian market version by a different vendor.

Jeff Kempton

[Jeff Kempton]

Originally Posted by Dyno

I found a 40,000 mile 69 Roadrunner for sale for $1500.00 that was a 383/auto and drove that through the winter. Dyno

I did the same thing; except my winter beater in '79 was an original owner unmodified '69 Swinger 340/auto. However, it was pretty rusty so I felt justified. I sold it to a guy the next spring and he transferred all the correct drivetrain and accessories into his own highly modified '69 340 Swinger to return it to stock, but not until after he bracket raced my old car all summer and had a ball!

[Jeff Kempton]

Here's my 1968 Road Runner story. When I was about 18 my cousin bought a '68 Road Runner 383/4 speed. Only problem was he had lost his license due to several tickets and was walking that week, so he recruited me to pick up the car and drive him around in it that night. I was happy to be driving that beautiful musclecar and was being pretty careful with it. After an hour or so he abruptly told me to pull into a parking lot, where he turned to me and said "If I wanted to be driven around by an old lady I would have gotten my mother to come with me. Now for s--t's sake take this out and POUND it so I can see what I bought!" The rest of that night was a lot of fun....

[Paul Precht]

Originally Posted by Jim Wahl

Had to be a 2.73 or a 3.23 rear gear. Jim

.

2.76 was the standard and I think there was a 2.54 avail at some point.

[Jeff Lee]

'68 RR commercial. Beep Beep!

[4406mopar]

Originally Posted by Jim Wahl

Had to be a 2.73 or a 3.23 rear gear. Jim

.

The 8 3/4 hiway gears of that time were 2.76 2.94 3.23. There were some other oddball ratios from 58-62 like 3.36 and 3.73. All the Road runner horns that came on the cars were the light purple color, the black one pictured above is a current replacement.