1968 Plymouth Road Runner

[Ron Ortiz]

Purchased a 1968 1/2 in Viet Nam, had delivered to Miami, FL for pick up. It was midnight metallic blue. The '68 1/2 were slightly different in the tail lights. Had a 383 Sure Grip 3:23.
Had a friend who weighed about 300 lbs and worked at Miami Hollywood Speedway. He took me out and showed me how to shift and introduced me to drag racing. I thought he was going to rip the shifter out of the floor with his bang shifts, thought that was really cool.
The motor must have been one of the first off the assembly line as it was way quicker than any of the RR I ran Best time was a 14.03. Managed to acquire 3 speeding tickets the first month I owned it.
Entered my first race, the East Coast Winternationals and won the Eliminator running F/Pure Stock. Now I hooked. Had a six foot trophy riding in the front seat on the way home. This Mustang pulls up next to me and like an idiot I had to show what I had. Blew him off the line as he turned left down the road a piece and I noticed the blue lights behind me for ticket #4. Have not street raced since.

Put a giant hood scoop on it painted in multi colored snake skin. Won a buch of local races and then ended up working at the track also. Sold the car for a motorcycle.

Now I own a station wagon as it is convenient to haul around friends in the pits.

Ron Ortiz
U/SA and I'm still going 14's

[Paul Ceasrine]

The famous 1968 Road Runner 'Beep Beep Horn'

Developed by the Spartan Corporation, for $10,000.

The first Road Runner horn was all back, with no decal.

Near the end of the 1968 production year, the decal with
"Voice of the Road Runner" was added.



Road Runner Fun Fact;
When Chrysler Corporation struck a deal with Warner Brothers
in 1967 for $50,000 for the rights to name the new car the 'Road Runner' and brand
emblems on the car, it was based upon a production number of
2500 cars......More or less, $20 per car.

Of course, sales for the 1968 production year reached numbers beyond Chrysler's wildest
dream at 46,000+.

And at Warner Brothers, viewership increased by over 28% for the Saturday Morning
Bugs Bunny & Road Runner Show,,,especially with males between the ages of 18 to 25....

[Hemi Moose]

Originally Posted by Paul Ceasrine

...And at Warner Brothers, viewership increased by over 28% for the Saturday Morning Bugs Bunny & Road Runner Show,,,especially with males between the ages of 18 to 25....

I use to watch all those old cartoons back then, and always wondered if "Wile E Coyote the Super Genius" and all of that ACME Company stuff that he used would ever end up catching the Road Runner or not, lol.

[Frank B.]

Only because other people added Mopar memories. In 1970 I bought a 70 Barracuda 318 3 speed. It did have an 8 3/4 rear. I lived in Virgina and raced it at Suffok Raceway. I added Holly 2 barrel and it ran 16.10. In late 1971 I got Ed Miller from Chesepeake to change it over to a 340 4speed.He did all work including having exhaust made,shifter, and tuning. But it costed me a whopping $900 parts and labor. lol The car ran 13.10 on street tires with 3.23 gears. That was the good old days.

[KMachine]

I have a 69 383 4-speed RR. Red with a black vinyl top. I brought the car a couple of years ago from, Paul Wong.

[MEMORIES]

Lunati RL980 was the camshaft everyone was using in the 440's around here in the seventies. My brother had a 67 Dodge RT. He bought a 440 that Johnny Labbous had taken out of his SS/GA Roadrunner and put it in the RT. Talk about a wild street car!

Wayne

[Paul Ceasrine]

One of the sharpest looking Road Runners I ever saw,
back in 1968, a hardtop 383 Road Runner.

White with a black vinyl top,,,,,,,,,and the black matte hood.
Keystone Klassic wheels,,,,,Goodyear Polyglass R-W-L tires
with G-70 x 15's on the front, and G-60 x 15's on the back.

Really a simple addition to the car, that made it stand out.....
It looked fast,,,,,,and clean....

pc

[treessavoy]

'68 B5 blue Hemi, auto, dana. Just got home from Viet Nam and saw the ad in the Atlanta paper, the owner was in Viet Nam and told his parents to sell it. Bought it in Sep. '70 for $1,275.00 with a new aamco trans.

Sure wish I had it back!

JimR

[Jeff Kempton]

[QUOTE=Paul Ceasrine;283932]The famous 1968 Road Runner 'Beep Beep Horn'



Paul;

I have an original Road Runner horn like this, but the body of the horn is painted the same purple as the cartoon bird's head. It looks like factory paint and I assumed they were all that way, but I see this one is black. A buddy of mine has one that he added to his '76 Volare Road Runner back when he bought it new, and it's purple also. Maybe ours are a Canadian market version by a different vendor.

Jeff Kempton