The Plymouth Road Runner was a muscle car built by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation in the United States between 1968 and 1980. In 1968, the first muscle cars were, in the opinion of many, moving away from their roots as relatively cheap, fast cars as they gained options. Although Plymouth already had a performance car in the GTX, designers decided to go back to the drawing board and reincarnate the original muscle car concept. Plymouth wanted a car able to run 14-second times in the quarter mile and sell for less than US$3000. Both goals were met, and the low-cost muscle... car hit the street. The success of the Road Runner would far outpace the upscale and lower volume GTX, with which it was often confused. Paying $50,000 to Warner Brothers to use the name and likeness of their Road Runner cartoon character , and using the Chrysler B platform as a base , Plymouth set out to build a back-to-basics muscle car. Everything essential to performance and handling was beefed-up and improved; everything nonessential was left out.
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