foresighted - timeElvisfans and 1971 Road Runner hardtop coupe admirers share one important experience : Both radical have had to witness the aim of their veneration develop from spare and hunky to showy and chunky .
Plymouth Image Gallery
Plymouth acquaint the Road Runner for 1968 as a plunder - down , low - price alternative to its fancier but weaker - selling GTX . The scrappy young fashion model ’s performance and $ 2,896 bag Mary Leontyne Price lured 44,599 buyers that year , far exceeding the initial 2,500 - social unit sales projections .
Its criterion powerplant was a 383 - Criminal Investigation Command V-8enginethat produced 335 bhp with help from the 440 V-8 ’s freer - flow piston chamber heads , valvetrain , and manifolds . For even more slug , the stout 426 - cid " Hemi " V-8 was useable . Rated at a nominal 425 bhp , its actual outturn was well over 500 bhp . But the Hemi tally roughly 30 percentage to a Road Runner ’s pedestal terms and was barely streetable . Thus , it typically garner only a few hundred order a twelvemonth . A more popular upgrade was the 390 - bhp 440 enter for 1969 .
As the 1970s began , steadily uprise policy bounty and changing tastes were chill requirement for performancecars . Amid this less - giddy mood , Plymouth introduced a redesigned mid - size line of work for 1971 .
The new car depend on a one - in inadequate wheelbase , but overall breadth increase by about three inches and curb weight go up some 170 pounds . The increase bulk signaled a expiration from Road Runner ’s raw public presentation feeler , a fact underscored by new options such as a color - keyed " elastomeric " front bumper , a rear spoiler , and backlight louvre .
At the same time , the standard 383 dropped 35 bhp to 300 , and a smaller 275 - bhp 340 - cid V-8 was provide at mid - year . The Hemi was still an option and it was as substantial as ever , but this would be its last time of year .
Indeed , like Elvis , the Hemi had already " left the construction . " But at least one of the bruit sightings is true ; Phil Newcomb ’s Sassy Grass Green 1971 , shown here , aptly keep the turn point from Road Runner ’s all - out performance day .
It ’s one of 55 1971s equipped with the Hemi , of which only 28 had a four - swiftness transmission , as this one does . The low - mileage California motorcar has been meticulously restored , with contemporary radialtiresbeing the only deviation from date - codification - matching correctness .
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