Photo: Mecum Auctions
Having introduced the fancied-up GTX for the 1967 model year, Plymouth decided it also needed a more affordable, no-frills muscle car. It was born in 1968 with the Road Runner badge.
Plymouth paid $50,000 (about $477,000 in 2024 dollars) to Warner Bros to use the name, a deal which also included the likeness from their Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons. The company also spent $10,000 to develop the "beep, beep" horn.
The Road Runner was a big hit compared to the GTX. It sold 44,303 units in 1968 and 81,105 examples in 1969. Although muscle car sales began to drop in 1970, the Road Runner still found nearly 37,000 homes that year.
Come 2024, the Road Runner is one of the more common muscle cars from the golden era, but certain examples are notably rarer than others. The HEMI cars are the scarcest of the bunch, followed by the convertible body styles offered for only two years (1969 and 1970). The 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) Six-Pack rigs aren't very common either.
In 1968, Plymouth did not offer a convertible. The 440 Six-Barrel hadn't been introduced either. The two-door coupe and hardtop were the only body styles, while the engine lineup included the standard 383-cubic-inch (6.3-liter) V8 and the optional 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI. Needless to say, most customers went with the more affordable 383.
Of the 44,303 Road Runners sold that year, no fewer than 43,294 rolled off the assembly line with the B-block mill. The remaining 1,009 examples, only 2.3% of the total production, were ordered with the mighty 426 HEMI. The Sunfire Yellow coupe you see here is one of those cars.
Restored in the late 2010s, this Road Runner is a fabulous piece of Mopar history that could very well spend its retirement in a museum. Refinished in its factory-correct paint, this Road Runner packs a two-tone interior you won't see on many of its 1968-model-year siblings. That's because the seats and the door panels are wrapped in black and grey. The latter actually has a cool silver tint to it in direct sunlight.
Making things that much better, the HEMI V8 mates to a four-speed manual transmission, the most desirable Mopar drivetrain combo from the golden era. The ad doesn't say whether the 426 engine is numbers-matching, but it's definitely a period-correct lump. Also, the coupe body style and the gearbox make this HEMI Road Runner notably rarer than the 1,009-unit production run mentioned above.
Specifically, it's one of 840 coupes equipped with the 426 HEMI. Of these, only 449 were also optioned with the four-speed manual transmission. Granted, it's not as rare as the hardtop, but that's a tiny figure compared to the entire 1968 production run (just 1%).
If it's the kind of car you've been looking to park in your driveway, this HEMI Road Runner is scheduled to go under the hammer at the Harribsurg 2024 auction on July 27. There's no pricing estimate for this Mopar, but expect it to fetch more than $100,000. For reference, restored and highly original HEMI Road Runners can fetch as much as $160,000.
The Road Runner was a big hit compared to the GTX. It sold 44,303 units in 1968 and 81,105 examples in 1969. Although muscle car sales began to drop in 1970, the Road Runner still found nearly 37,000 homes that year.
Come 2024, the Road Runner is one of the more common muscle cars from the golden era, but certain examples are notably rarer than others. The HEMI cars are the scarcest of the bunch, followed by the convertible body styles offered for only two years (1969 and 1970). The 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) Six-Pack rigs aren't very common either.
In 1968, Plymouth did not offer a convertible. The 440 Six-Barrel hadn't been introduced either. The two-door coupe and hardtop were the only body styles, while the engine lineup included the standard 383-cubic-inch (6.3-liter) V8 and the optional 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI. Needless to say, most customers went with the more affordable 383.
Of the 44,303 Road Runners sold that year, no fewer than 43,294 rolled off the assembly line with the B-block mill. The remaining 1,009 examples, only 2.3% of the total production, were ordered with the mighty 426 HEMI. The Sunfire Yellow coupe you see here is one of those cars.
Restored in the late 2010s, this Road Runner is a fabulous piece of Mopar history that could very well spend its retirement in a museum. Refinished in its factory-correct paint, this Road Runner packs a two-tone interior you won't see on many of its 1968-model-year siblings. That's because the seats and the door panels are wrapped in black and grey. The latter actually has a cool silver tint to it in direct sunlight.
Making things that much better, the HEMI V8 mates to a four-speed manual transmission, the most desirable Mopar drivetrain combo from the golden era. The ad doesn't say whether the 426 engine is numbers-matching, but it's definitely a period-correct lump. Also, the coupe body style and the gearbox make this HEMI Road Runner notably rarer than the 1,009-unit production run mentioned above.
Specifically, it's one of 840 coupes equipped with the 426 HEMI. Of these, only 449 were also optioned with the four-speed manual transmission. Granted, it's not as rare as the hardtop, but that's a tiny figure compared to the entire 1968 production run (just 1%).
If it's the kind of car you've been looking to park in your driveway, this HEMI Road Runner is scheduled to go under the hammer at the Harribsurg 2024 auction on July 27. There's no pricing estimate for this Mopar, but expect it to fetch more than $100,000. For reference, restored and highly original HEMI Road Runners can fetch as much as $160,000.
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