Plymouth built the 1968 Road Runner to be cheap and fast, then let buyers pile a $714 Hemi on top of a car designed around a stripped-down budget pitch. Only 1,019 out of roughly 45,000 Road Runners built that year got the big engine. Here’s why so few buyers took Plymouth up on its most contradictory option.
Awesome job on the restoration of this beautiful HEMI Roadrunner!
Plymouth expected to sell about 20,000 units of a car it built on purpose to look and feel cheap. Instead, the 1968 Road Runner sold more than double that projection, and buried within that runaway success was an engine option so expensive relative to the car’s stripped-down mission that fewer than 1 in 40 buyers ever checked the box for it. The restored example pictured here carries that exact rare combination: the 426 Hemi, a $714 option bolted into a car that shipped with vinyl bench seats and, in early production, no carpet at all. Why would Plymouth build its cheapest muscle car and then let it carry the most expensive engine in the entire lineup?
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A Muscle Car Built to Be Basic
Plymouth designed the Road Runner around a simple pitch: strip away nearly every comfort option, keep the price low, and let a strong V8 do all the talking. The base car came with a spartan vinyl bench seat, minimal sound insulation, and a short options list that covered little beyond power steering, front disc brakes, an AM radio, and air conditioning, and even A/C was only available if you also ordered the Hemi. Plymouth projected sales of roughly 20,000 units for the model’s debut year; actual demand landed closer to 45,000, good enough for third place in muscle car sales behind only the Pontiac GTO and Chevrolet‘s SS 396 Chevelle.
The Engine That Cost More Than the Car’s Mission Statement
Sitting at the top of that same stripped-down order sheet was the 426 Hemi, rated at 425 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque from a pair of Carter AFB four-barrel carburetors, a $714 option on a car whose entire appeal was built around not spending extra money. Choosing the Hemi also meant accepting a mandatory $139 3.54:1 Sure-Grip Dana 60 rear axle, pushing the total premium well past what most budget-focused Road Runner buyers were willing to pay.
Why So Few Buyers Took the Bait
That price gap is exactly why Hemi Road Runners stayed rare even in a runaway sales year: just 1,019 of the roughly 45,000 Road Runners built for 1968 left the factory with the big engine, meaning fewer than 3 percent of buyers combined Plymouth‘s budget muscle car with its most serious performance option. Most shoppers instead opted for the standard 383-cubic-inch V8, rated at a still-respectable 335 horsepower, and pocketed the difference.
What a Documented Restoration Preserves
A properly restored 426 Hemi Road Runner like this one preserves a combination that was already a minority choice the day it left the factory, a car built on the promise of doing more with less, wearing the one option that broke that entire premise. That contradiction is a large part of why Hemi Road Runners now command prices many multiples higher than their 383-powered siblings, despite starting life as the same basic car underneath.
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Steve Mongeon
Very nice job on the restoration. Beautiful car
Where’s the ‘beep-beep your ass!’ sticker
Nice I had the 383 magnum
Doesn’t get better than that!
Even has the Red -Line tires!
I’ve never forgot the rumble of the hemi cars cruising the drive ins back in the 60s. Great times we had!
Awesome ride
I had a 68 with a 440 Magnum
I had a 68 2 door post like this, just loved driving it till the day I sold it. Always regretted getting rid of it.
Jim Mueller
Nice
Beautiful job
Greatness
Bill Kimpston
Had one just like this one. This is strong car.
Had BLUE 69 looked like this and them it climbed tree
I had one ,but it was silver
Nice. Mine was powder blue/flat black hood 383.
I have always wanted one
Mine was a 440. However this one is sweet.
The king of the ultimate horsepower engines right there. ..
Yes!
Bad A$$
We had a 68 Plymouth just like this with red line tires but it was not a hemi !
Loved that car
Talk about bringing tears to my eyes.
John D. Anderson
Great car and it sounds good two.
one of my friends in high school had on in green