The Plymouth Road Runner first went on sale for the 1968 model year. Plymouth created it as a stripped-down, affordable muscle car based on the Belvedere, emphasizing speed and performance over luxury equipment.
Its name and cartoon-inspired identity came from Warner Bros. Plymouth paid to use the Road Runner character and added a famous “beep, beep” horn. The car used a powerful 383-cubic-inch V8 as standard equipment, while buyers could order the 426 Hemi, yet the cabin remained deliberately basic with a bench seat and limited sound insulation.
Plymouth expected to sell about 20,000 Road Runners in 1968, but actual sales reached roughly 45,000. That success helped establish the model immediately and prompted Dodge to introduce the related Super Bee during the 1968 model year. The Road Runner continued through 1980, though later versions became less focused on muscle-car performance.