RRDon
Well-Known Member
My first contact
The memory of these cars when they were brand spanking new from the factory is something fewer and fewer people are left to appreciate. It's certainly something you never forget.
I remember the first RR I ever saw in the late fall of 1967, I was a sophomore in High School and had just got finished with my paper route when I rode my bike up to the Circle K store near 27th Ave and Camelback Rd in Phoenix. I was relaxing out front sipping a soda (which I had purchased with my 18 cents profit from that week) when a car I had never seen before rumbled into the parking lot and pulled up right in front of me! It was a bright blue BRAND NEW 68 Road Runner! My jaw hit the ground as I stood there in total amazement at the sight of this sleek new muscle that had just hit the streets in Phoenix! It had flat black muscle hood bulges with 383 badging and a small black and white cartoon decal on the driver’s door next to a silver name plate which read "road runner". I may have only been about 16 at the time but I was already very aware of all the latest muscle cars and especially the ones with Chrysler's big 'wedge engines'. Almost no one knew anything about these cars before they showed up at the Chrysler/Plymouth dealerships so it was simply stunning and spell binding to see one for very the first time.
When the owner came out I asked him about the car and he showed it to me. It had a four speed floor shifter with a white shift knob, flat bench seats with silver/black two tone colors, vinyl flooring (no carpet) and an AM radio. That was it, apparently no other options as I can recall. I asked the guy to "get on it" when he left and as he pulled out onto Camelback Rd, heading West, he dumped the clutch and lit up the tires. Tacking out instantly he shifted to 2nd and let time up again, and again! From that point forward I was TOTALLY hooked! I can remember that sound like it was yesterday! That was my first experience with a Road Runner and hopefully explains why that now, in my golden years, I just had to have a blue 68 Road Runner four speed. My apologizes if I rambled on too much ;)
The memory of these cars when they were brand spanking new from the factory is something fewer and fewer people are left to appreciate. It's certainly something you never forget.
I remember the first RR I ever saw in the late fall of 1967, I was a sophomore in High School and had just got finished with my paper route when I rode my bike up to the Circle K store near 27th Ave and Camelback Rd in Phoenix. I was relaxing out front sipping a soda (which I had purchased with my 18 cents profit from that week) when a car I had never seen before rumbled into the parking lot and pulled up right in front of me! It was a bright blue BRAND NEW 68 Road Runner! My jaw hit the ground as I stood there in total amazement at the sight of this sleek new muscle that had just hit the streets in Phoenix! It had flat black muscle hood bulges with 383 badging and a small black and white cartoon decal on the driver’s door next to a silver name plate which read "road runner". I may have only been about 16 at the time but I was already very aware of all the latest muscle cars and especially the ones with Chrysler's big 'wedge engines'. Almost no one knew anything about these cars before they showed up at the Chrysler/Plymouth dealerships so it was simply stunning and spell binding to see one for very the first time.
When the owner came out I asked him about the car and he showed it to me. It had a four speed floor shifter with a white shift knob, flat bench seats with silver/black two tone colors, vinyl flooring (no carpet) and an AM radio. That was it, apparently no other options as I can recall. I asked the guy to "get on it" when he left and as he pulled out onto Camelback Rd, heading West, he dumped the clutch and lit up the tires. Tacking out instantly he shifted to 2nd and let time up again, and again! From that point forward I was TOTALLY hooked! I can remember that sound like it was yesterday! That was my first experience with a Road Runner and hopefully explains why that now, in my golden years, I just had to have a blue 68 Road Runner four speed. My apologizes if I rambled on too much ;)
