I know that last week I finished my blog on the Ford Torino CJ with a hint that this week’s installment would feature a car with the monstrous Hemi, and I will not disappoint. However this week’s car is more than just another Hemi car, for when it was introduced, the muscle car market received a shakeup that made those who thought they were untouchable feel a very real sense of fear that their days controlling the market were numbered.

It is no doubt that Pontiac stole the muscle car market in 1964 by catching everyone off guard when they introduced the GTO, and it would take some time before any car manufacturer challenged the presence of the first muscle car. However, in 1968 the gloves came off and Plymouth delivered a staunch blow to the belly of the once undisputed majority shareholder of the muscle car market.

In 1967, the baby boomer market was beginning to be recognized as a large, untapped source of young car buyers that sought high performance on a limited budget. Chrysler/Plymouth’s VP and General Manager at the time, Robert Anderson got the ball moving at Plymouth to tap into this market by introducing a budget muscle car to appeal to this younger generation. The plan called for a B-Body sized car that was based on the already existing Belvedere that sold for under $3,000, however in order to differentiate this new car from preexisting models, some changes needed to be made. The hood of the GTX was placed on the car as well as a blackout grill and tail light panel. There was no extra trim or dress up pieces added for the theme of this car was functionality and not aesthetics. The name designated to the car was originally coined as La Mancha (similar to the Le Mans Pontiac manufactured) however was changed to Road Runner in honor of the Warner Bros. cartoon star. In keeping with the ACME inspired theme, the car was outfitted with Road Runner decals and a horn that actually went “BEEP BEEP”.

The heart of a bone stock Road Runner came in the form of a hopped up 383 cubic inch block that borrowed the camshaft and exhaust manifolds of the 440 and mated it with newly casted heads that made for a combination that produced 335 horsepower and 425 pound feet of torque. The 383 was mated to a 4 speed A833 transmission with a set of 3.23 gears in the rear turning the wide (for the time) rubber.

The 383 did well for those that wanted good performance with a low sticker price, but what about those that had a little extra coin in their pockets? If the $714.30 bump in the cost of a base Road Runner wasn’t a factor and you wanted the most hp you could get then chances are you ordered the 426 Hemi. This elephant motor was rated at 425 horsepower and 490 pound feet of torque (actual output was closer to 500 but Chrysler had to rate it lower due to insurance reasons). As soon as you drove your Hemi Road Runner off the dealership lot you could take it to the strip and run 13.5’s in the 1/4 mile at 105 miles per hour. That power also meant a zero to sixty time of 5.3 seconds, not too bad for a 2-ton steel car. The legendary power of the Hemi is explained by Car and Driver testers who, after driving it stated “It has an impatient surging idle that causes the whole car to quiver, particularly when the automatic transmission is in gear and being held against the brake…Go past the [throttle] lump and you open everything to the two 4-bbl. Carters. The exhaust explodes like Krakatoa and the wailing howl of surprised air being sucked into the intakes turns heads for blocks.”

The success of the Road Runner was more than Plymouth could have ever imagined, with first year sales totaling almost 45,000 (just a little bit more than the 2,500 projected). The Road Runner was definitely a contender in any street race, and if it had that elephant under the hood you could bet that 9 times out of 10 your opponent would be sucking fumes. Special thanks to Muscle Car Review for supplying some facts on the development of the Road Runner. This is Big_Blocker signing off.