1968 Plymouth Road Runner

[Bob Don]

I had a '69 in B5 blue. 383 4 speed, bench seat with 3:23 gears. Cragars all around. I could chirp the first three gears but fourth was too tall! I wish I had that car back now.

[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.

[Curt Rees]

I bought 2 new. The 1st 1 I bought in Oct of 1967, Red with an auto. I drove the car to California that christmas and burned a quart of oil about every 500 miles. The motor had some serious ring problems

The dealership traded it back in on another 1 in May of 1968. That car was a winner It was purple with an auto, I changed the gears from 3:55's to 3:91's. It ran 14:50's at Marion, SD all day long. I made no other changes to the car. I have still have the trophies that I won with that car. I ran F/Pure Stock with it.

Those were the glory days of the muscle car era. I am so happy that I was a part of it!

#5457

Curt Rees

[Paul Ceasrine]

Back in early-1968, Chrysler Plymouth/Dodge had some kind of
dealer installed only 'performance package' offered for the
383 Road Runner and/or 383 Super Bee.

* 4.10 gears
* a special adjustable pinion snubber
* Hooker Headers (1 3/4" pipe x 44" length w/3" collectors)
* distributor kit (w/heavier counter-weights and weaker springs)

The cost, around $375,,,,,,
called the 'Quarter in a 100 MPH package'...

[Frank Castros]

I had Frost Green '69 383, 4-speed, 3.23 with the Air Grabber option.
It ran very well after some tweaking.
I loved that car.

[Dan Bennett]

I didn't own one, but my brother bought the first hardtop 68 Road Runner I'd ever seen in the spring/summer of 68. None of the magazines (which was our only source for info) had mentioned that option yet so I did a serious doubletake when he brought it home.

It was really too pretty to be a Road Runner. It was light yellow, had a two tone tan interior including carpet, had road wheels with trim rings, and chrome around the windows. The wide ovals were even thin line whitewalls. It didn't have any performance options at all; in fact I think the 3:23 rear end wasn't even Sure Grip. It looked like a really nice Belvedere and would have been the sleeper of all time if it had a Hemi.

The car ran OK but since it was pretty heavy with the options and he was a goob anyhow, it wasn't something anyone was afraid to pull next to.

I drove the car a bit that summer and the thing I remember more than anything was the great intake sound from the open aircleaner and AFB. I'd kick the Torqueflite down any chance I could just to listen those secondaries open.

I thought the car was pretty neat back then but looking back on it I'd probably rather have the 58 348 Impala he traded in.

[Mike Gray]

There's another one I messed up on. My neighbor had a dark green RR in his driveway and he was trying to decide what to do with it because he didn't have the money to put the original engine back in it. Someone replaced the HEMI with a 383, I bet I could have picked it up for about 2K !
(this was in 1976)

[Paul Ceasrine]

All the Road Runners were supposed to be equipped with the
Sure-Grip Posi-rear as standard equipment.

The standard gears were 3.23's.
But for $88 (a wise investment) you could get the 'Performance Axle',
3.55 gears with the Sure-Grip Posi.

The first cars out in October 1967, were pillared post cars, with the
swing out quarter-glass.

pc

[Chris DeGidio]

My Dad bought a 70 model right after he came back from Viet Nam.383 4-speed 3.23's coupe Vitamin C orange with burnt orange bench seats.Raced it at Budds Creek and later at Gainesville,eventually ran 12.23 with the stock OEM shortblock, street hemi cam and the usual bolt on's

Still have it and it's undergoing a full resto,we kept all the original parts we took off to go racing except the hood.

[goinbroke2]

When we came back from Germany in 73 (dad was airforce) one of the first cars in town I saw was a jacked up bright orange 68 or 69 road runner with "Vitamin C" wrote across the back fenders.
I remember it was a 4 spd and had chrome 440 badges on the hood where the 383 should be. (or did they come with 440 badges?)

Loved that car as well as the red 55 chev with a blown bigblock that i used to help push down the neighbors driveway to start. it had a tilt front end and chrome ladderbars. (didn't have a starter for some reason)

If i was only a little older....