American Muscle Monday: The 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner

Beep! Beep! That familiar sound comes from one of your favorite childhood television characters as well as this weeks American Muscle Monday focus. The 1968 Plymouth Road Runner was designed to run the quarter mile in under 14 seconds and run the consumer less than $3,000. Mind you that $3,000 in 1968 is equivalent to over $20,000 today, the quality and overall appeal of the Road Runner justifies the price.

This commercial is one of the originals that were used to sell the Plymouth Road Runner in 1968. Plymouth forked over $50,000 to Warner Bros to earn the rights to the road runner name, and spent an additional $10,000 to create their signature horn, which mimicked the "Beep! Beep!" noise of the famous cartoon character himself.

The 1968 Plymouth Road Runner model featured:

• A spartan interior with a basic cloth & vinyl bench seat (there were no carpets in the early models)
• Power steering
• Front disc brakes
• AM radio
• Air conditioning
• Automatic transmission
• A floor mounted shifter (four speed only)

The earliest models were only available as two door coupes, and the 383 CID (6.3 L) road runner V8 engine came standard on all Plymouth Road Runner models.