The Plymouth Road Runner was a short-lived nameplate, emerging in 1968 and retiring at the end of 1974, together with another iconic duo of the muscle car age, the E-body Mopar twins Barracuda and Challenger. While the low-key automobile was an affordable street performer for low-budget, hot-headed buyers, certain rarities among its ranks set it apart from the crowd.
I’m not talking about the almighty Superbird of 1970, nor am I hinting at the Hemi-powered examples. Instead, I have something even more rare than those two – the Road Runner convertible. The body style was available for just two model years – 1969 and 1970 – and the limited production numbers make it a treasure trove for collectors nowadays.
Consider this: in 1969, out of a total production of 84,420 (79,693 sold within the United States, with another 4,727 delivered in Canada and abroad), just 1,890 had a metal rack and a piece of cloth over the cabin. In the following and final year, the number dropped to one-third of that volume, with only 658 ragtops ordered.
In line with the bulk of production, most of the convertibles were equipped with the 383 ‘Road Runner’ V8, the engine developed specifically and installed only in the Plymouth eponym. In 1969, one thousand eight hundred eighty units had the 383-cubic-inch motor (6.3-liter) fitted in their engine bays. The other ten had the 426 Street Hemi. There were no 440-cube / 7.2-liter droptop Road Runners made that year.
That omission was corrected in 1970, with 34 examples leaving the assembly line with the mighty 440 Six-Barrel V8. Three had the Hemi, and the rest of them, 621 in total, relied on the entry-level big-block in the Chrysler lineup, the 383.
The uneven distribution could partly be attributed to the price of the optional engines ($813.45 for the Hemi, $462.80 for the Six-Barrel 440) that would take the already expensive convertible into another Dodge Charger territory. The base droptop was $3,313, a lot more than the $2,945 coupe or the $3,083 hardtop.
Another reason would be that convertibles were falling out of fashion by the end of the ’60s, but that didn’t stop Mother Mopar from putting the body style on the sales brochure of the first-generation Road Runner. This allowed Frank Palazzo, a St. Louis car nut, businessman, and racing addict, to fulfill a life-long dream of owning one of the rarest Road Runners ever—a 1969 convertible with a four-speed.
His example was purchased a few years ago, and it is a restored survivor that sports its original engine, transmission, and rear axle. It also sports a rather expensive option – the $100.85 bucket seats. Being a ’69, his Road Runner has the only manual transmission available that year, the tire-smoking, fun-bringing four-speed.
In 1970, a three-speed, three-pedal was added to the list, alongside the four-speed and the three-speed Torqueflite automatic (both had been available in the muscle Plymouth since its inception in 1968). Featured in a video by Tom Gallaher, the vlogger behind ‘The Story Behind The Car’ YouTube channel, the car is definitely a head-turner that came into the current owner’s possession following a three-year active search for an F8 Green example and a half-century patient wait.
Just 768 other copies of the 1969 convertible Road Runner with the 383 and a four-speed manual tranny were built, and this one is probably one of the best looking out there. We don’t get to listen to the rumble of the 335-hp, 425-lb-ft V8 (340 PS, 576 Nm), but I’m willing to bet a set of tires that the plant will leave parallel marks on the pavement without breaking a sweat.