1969 Plymouth Road Runner Hemi

The Hemi brand is now potent enough that DaimlerChrysler is fashioning its entire North American automotive operation around it

by Patrick Smith

Plymouth added the Road Runner to its model lineup in 1968, a bare-bones performance car built to a price. At only $3,000, Road Runners came with standard Plymouth Belvedere equipment, plus heavy duty suspension and shock absorbers, F70-14 tires on wide rims, armrests with ashtrays, a simulated air scoop hood, and a blacked-out, horizontal-bar grille. For a generation of drag racers who did not need bucket seats for the negligible lateral g-forces of a 1/4-mile sprint, it was just the ticket. The Road Runner’s standard engine was the 330-hp, 383-ci Wedge V8. It made gobs of torque and performed superbly with either the TorqueFlite automatic or a four-speed manual transmission. An extra $714—nearly one-fourth of the cost of the basic model—put Chrysler’s legendary 426-ci, 425-hp Hemi V8 into a Road Runner. As pricey as it may have been, it made for an unforgettable combination. The example offered here is an original, numbers-matching Hemi car documented by...