1968 Plymouth Road Runner

[Dan Bennett]

Originally Posted by Paul Ceasrine

This was one of the advertisements that got the 'Beep Beep' going,
the mid-year addition of the 'hardtop Road Runner'.

Not sure if anyone remembers the color of the 'special Beep Beep horn'.
Purple,,,,

I'm glad you posted the ad as I hadn't seen it. It's interesting since it shows the car on chrome Magnum 500s. I positively remember my brother's 68 having the Magnums with the brushed aluminum trim rings. I remember it clearly since the 68 AMX I had at the time had the chrome versions and I always managed to get a rise out of him since he had the "cheap wheels".

As for the horn, I remember reading about the money that Mopar had to pay Warner Brothers in order to use the Road Runner image and the sound of the horn. I think they got away cheap compared with what Pontiac had to pay per car on the Trans Am.

[Paul Ceasrine]

When the 68' Road Runner first came out in October 1967, and
if you went to race it during the 1967 season,
you were classed in B/S or B/SA.

In 1967, the B/S class had a a weight factor 9.50 - 10.59 wt/hp.
The B/S class was that broad of range.

So the 3400 lb., 383/335 HP Road Runner was classed with
the 440 GTX's, 440 R/T's, 400 GTO's and 4-4-2's, and SS396 Chevelle's.
All of which had much higher horsepower.

And not to forget the #2950 lb. 'Z-28' Camaro 4-speeds.

On the road, The Road Runners could handle themselves, but on
the drag strip,,,,,,,,,,,sometimes it wasn't pretty in late-1967.

In 1968, when NHRA re-classed everything, the Road Runners were
classed in E/S or E/SA (10.00 - 10.49 wt/hp).
The automatic cars were much more successful than the 4-speeds.

pc

[Mike Brogniez]

Had a dark green 68 sedan with the rear pop out window and a black vinyl roof and tan interior stick (hurst) car.
There was quite a bit of work done to the engine, tranny, gears, front end and cranking those torsion bars as required.....
It was a fun drag car, with slicks and narrow fronts on Keystone mags...it also won its fair share on the street with the red lines and small hub caps.
Still have some of those trophies.....somewhere.....
The guy I sold it to totalled it two weeks after he bought it............
MB

[Paul Ceasrine]

Just pulled out an old 1968 Drag News,
found one of our friends winning in E/SA in August 1968.

Ran a 14.72 @ 95.50 MPH, in winning a Class Trophy at Dover Drag Strip.

A completely stock 383 engine and 727 automatic transmission, with Hooker Headers, 3.55 gears and 7' slicks,,,,,,,Oh,,, and 'foam dice'
hanging from the inside mirror.

Road Runner Fact;
The interesting thing about the 1968 383 Road Runners.
The 3.23 gears were standard.
The 3.55 gears could be ordered with the 'performance axle option' ($88)
The 3.91 gears could be 'special ordered', for an additional ($55), on top of the ($88) option.

4.10 gears from the factory were not available. Not because it was harmful to the cars
engine and drivetrain. It was because the Plymouth GTX sales and marketing department was afraid that a 383 Road Runner with 4.10 gears might outperform a 440 GTX with 3.55 gears.
And that, as we all know, would not have been too good for GTX sales.

[Paul Ceasrine]

Some 1970 performance tests by Sox & Martin with the Road Runner..

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by MEMORIES

I drove this car for Raymond King in 1980 and 81. Don't know if it was a 68 or 69 but we had the 440 six pack in it. I won three races in a row one time with it, only time in my racing career I was able to do that.

Wayne.

Wayne, It's a '69. Jim

.

[dennis dunlap]

a friend of mine bought a new 68 roadrunner in 68 , plain jane hemi bench seat auto on the coloum ,we street raced every week, my 69 ram -air iv gto and his hemi , and ten or so other muscle cars ,never will forget those times. Anyway my gto is long gone but he still has that 68 hemi car sitting up the road from me, 9000 original miles on it............. Dennis

[Geerhead55]

I had a buddy with a '70 RR, 383 4speed combo that had been tweaked a little,,yellow with black interior, and a Air Grabber hood. We swapped rides one Friday night since he liked my '67 Malibu 327-4 speed hardtop. Anyway, after a night of cruising all the popular stops of the day, this is around '73 ,, I pull up to a stop light, inside lane, and a guy in a '69 Mustang pulls up beside me and revs his motor. I give him a little smile,,reach over and hit the switch for the Air grabber to open up, and watch his eyes grow as that thing slowly came up with the bad *** graphic on the side. He promptly decided to turn right and I never got to run him,,Dang, I was ready for him,,oh well. Thats my Road Runner story!
Danny Durham

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by Geerhead55

I had a buddy with a '70 RR, 383 4speed combo that had been tweaked a little,,yellow with black interior, and a Air Grabber hood. We swapped rides one Friday night since he liked my '67 Malibu 327-4 speed hardtop. Anyway, after a night of cruising all the popular stops of the day, this is around '73 ,, I pull up to a stop light, inside lane, and a guy in a '69 Mustang pulls up beside me and revs his motor. I give him a little smile,,reach over and hit the switch for the Air grabber to open up, and watch his eyes grow as that thing slowly came up with the bad *** graphic on the side. He promptly decided to turn right and I never got to run him,,Dang, I was ready for him,,oh well. Thats my Road Runner story!
Danny Durham

Now that is funny, I don't care who you are! Jim

.

[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by Jim Wahl

Now that is funny, I don't care who you are! Jim

.

All that sticks in my memory was that a 340 Duster/Dart Swinger A-body car, was about two tenths quicker in pure stock trim, than the 335/383 Road Runner package with any given drivetrain and that really surprised me. Took me a long time to reconcile that fact....