Читать книгу 1969 Plymouth Road Runner - Wes Eisenschenk - Страница 8
ОглавлениеThis PR sheet from Chrysler announced that a convertible would now be an option on the 1969 Road Runner. Although sales were nominal, the convertible lasted one more year before being discontinued. (Dodge, Plymouth and the AMC design are registered trademarks of FCA US LLC)
With the rush to production in 1968, the Road Runner came on a like a Top Fuel dragster and remained at full throttle through 1969. In that short timeframe more than 125,000 cars were introduced to the public, with very few changes.
The conceptualization of the Road Runner was a collective series of conversations and ideas that started with Pontiac and the GTO. In the cause-and-effect world of muscle cars, it was Pontiac’s creation of the GTO that forced Plymouth to come up with a fast, marketable, and affordable car. Plymouth already had the fast component, and was hard at work looking for the remaining ingredients.
In 1965, Robert “Big Bob” Anderson was named vice president of the Chrysler-Plymouth sales division. By 1967 Anderson was looking for a way to get the kids into the dealerships. Youth was driving the muscle car movement, so he reached out to Car and Driver writer Brock Yates and asked him for his thoughts. Yates suggested stripping down a car and stuffing the biggest engine into it. A novel concept and one that started in the early 1960s with the package cars offered to drag racers. However, these cars generally weren’t available to the buying public and were unsuitable for day-to-day driving. Eventually, the idea trickled down to Product Planning Group Manager Jack Smith.
Smith had planted the seed with his company car; a 1967 Belvedere II packing a 383 4-speed with 11-inch police brakes and redline tires. The Belvedere II was close in concept to Yates’ suggestion. Smith envisioned applying the concept to the newly shaped Plymouth B-Bodies, and it had to be done quickly as 1968 model preparation was in its 11th hour. Jack proposed the idea with naming considerations to be handled by the advertising agency, Young & Rubicam.
Jack Smith poses with a cardboard cutout of the Road Runner. The 1968 Road Runner exceeded sales expectations setting the table for a very fruitful 1969 campaign. (Photo Courtesy Jack Smith)
The easy part of creating a new car was the availability of parts on Chrysler’s shelves. At that time, Chrysler was handling 51 percent of the police car business. Performance brakes, suspension, and various driveline components were being made to fill the orders. With all of the chassis and most driveline components readily available, it came down to finding a name both marketable and relatable to the youth of America.
Gordon Cherry was an assistant to Jack Smith in the Product Planning department. It was Gordon who asked Jack, “Have you ever watched Saturday Morning cartoons?” (Photo Courtesy Mark Cherry)
About a week into the car’s creation Smith’s assistant, Gordon Cherry, came into the office and proclaimed that he had, “a perfect name for the car.” After some bantering between the two, Cherry stated that Smith needed to watch a particular Saturday morning cartoon. Without knowing all the details, Smith agreed to watch the television program the following Saturday regarding a certain bird.
When Smith saw the Road Runner he instantly fell in love. To anyone who may not know the full history of the Road Runner, it was a colorful bird forever being chased by a coyote that could never catch him. Chuck Jones of Warner Brothers created the characters Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner in 1948, and the duo made their debut in Fast and Furry-ous September 17, 1949. And for the next 17 years new episodes were unveiled bringing the series total to 40 shows.
The Road Runner met all the intangibles that Jack was looking for; he just never knew it existed before that Saturday morning. The Road Runner could blast off on a moment’s notice and stop just as quickly. The bird exuded speed and exhibited a tongue-in-cheek demeanor that could potentially suit Plymouth’s target audience.
With Cherry’s suggestion of the name “Road Runner,” all that was left was to pitch the idea to the advertising agency handling the naming of the car. Before Smith could make the suggestion, a meeting was scheduled for the unveiling of the name. Smith and Cherry met with the ad agency at a steakhouse where a young man from the Art Department made the big unveiling. On the bottom of a sheet of paper read, “Lamancha.”
After a series of congratulatory handshakes on a job well done, it was now or never to squeeze the name “Road Runner” into the conversation. Smith announced, “In addition to your candidate names is the name that Gordon and I think would be perfect for the car. It has all the characteristics of the car and we think it would do a good job.” The group sat down to hear the name. Smith asked, “Do you ever watch cartoons on television?” Heads nodded throughout the room. “We think a perfect name for the car is Road Runner.”
Silence fell and the Art Department guy shoved his head into his elbow. Half a minute passed before his head popped up and he exclaimed, “I can work with that!”
The next hurdle was negotiating with Warner Brothers to use the cartoon bird on the car. Prior to that conversation Smith contacted the Automobile Manufacturers Association and secured the name “Road Runner.” Once secured, negotiations became simple. Either Warner Brothers went along for the ride or watched from the sidelines, because Plymouth could use the name either way.
Warner Brothers decided the fit was right with Plymouth and an annual usage fee of $50,000 was agreed upon between the two corporate giants. The Plymouth had a name and a character to boot!
A key ingredient still needed was the voice of the Road Runner. Chuck Jones had created the sound after hearing a person outside his office passing by with a stack of paperwork saying, “beep-beep” to get people to move out of the way. Smith was determined to get that sound out of a horn.
He approached three of Chrysler’s horn vendors and one stated they had a similar horn that would cost $45. Smith told them, “No way,” and asked them to remove every unnecessary component that still allowed it to make that sound and pass all the government regulations. One day later the horn vendor came back with a cost just 47 cents above what they were currently paying. Done.
With a fresh identity, a licensing agreement with Warner Brothers in hand, and a cool-sounding horn, Smith wanted one last thing: a Road Runner engine. Starting with Dick Maxwell, of Dodge Ramchargers fame, he suggested putting a 440 cam into the 383 block. After some trial and error, Frank Anderzjak, from the product planning garage, got the car dialed in with a new cam, gearing, and torque converter.
Next, Smith had to convince Bob Steere, chief engineer in Car and Truck Assembly, to add a new engine to an increasing lineup. Upon returning from vacation to find Smith sitting at his desk, Steere asked, “What in the hell are you doing here?”
After a lengthy pitch from Smith, Steere exulted, “Go do it!”
Adorning the air cleaner was a pie tin reading “383 Road Runner Engine” and featuring the Road Runner logo. It was another subtle reminder that the engine was exclusive to the Road Runner.
Here is the “Voice of the Road Runner” horn in purple. Some early 1969 Road Runners had a black horn as on 1968 models. (Darlene Deschambeault Photo)
THE DEATH OF THE ROAD RUNNER . . . ALMOST
Styling director Dick Macadam proved to be the last and final hurdle for Jack Smith and the Road Runner. In a three-way meeting with Smith, Macadam, and Bob Anderson, Macadam stated, “Nobody, but, nobody, will ever put a cartoon bird on one of my cars!” Anderson conceded, as Macadam was an important cog in the machine.
Smith made one last pitch to Anderson, so that a decal could be put in the glove box in case the owner wanted to apply it to the car. Anderson relented and Macadam agreed on the condition that he be able to choose the bird.
So how did the Road Runner bird make it onto the car from the factory? During an unveiling at Chrysler, the dealers came to view the next year’s models. Smith had a co-worker make copies of the Road Runner decals to scale, cut them out, and rubber cement them onto the car. As the group came out of the viewing talking over what they had seen, Smith inserted himself into the group around Bob Anderson.
Smith noted how happy everyone seemed, and asked Anderson if he’d noticed the bird. Anderson said, “I noticed it.”
Smith asked if he could put the bird on the car at the factory and Anderson said, “Yes.” Just like that, the Road Runner was complete.
This back-door scheme by Smith was a calculated and dangerous risk, but it paid off as the car was widely accepted. The dealer principals fell in love with the car and the personality it portrayed. The tipping point may have come about when “Big Bob” Anderson walked out of the showing with a prominent dealership owner from New Mexico, whose state bird was none other than the Road Runner.
As history shows, the 1968 Plymouth Road Runner was a resounding success. More than 43,000 Road Runners went to new owners, announcing to Ford and General Motors that Plymouth had a marketable performance car capable of pulling sales away from their mid-size market. Plymouth was just getting started, though, and its sophomore edition solidified its position as one of the greatest success stories of the muscle car era.
The Road Runner saw subtle cosmetic changes from 1968 to 1969. The addition of a hardtop and a convertible placed the car in direct competition with offerings from General Motors and Ford. Buyers now rowed their Road Runners with Hurst Shifters as standard equipment. A variety of new colors at mid-year paved the way for the abundance of choices to be offered in 1970.
The Road Runner became the mid-size status norm for other manufacturers to emulate. With its cartoonish appearance and a price point starting around $3,000, the no-frills Road Runner had carved out its own niche in the marketplace.
Pontiac responded with the GTO Judge, an option featuring “The Judge” decals in fonts never before seen on an automobile.
Ford created the Cobra, a stripped-down version of Fairlane and Torino offerings. The Cobra came standard with a 428 Cobra Jet engine and a manual transmission.
Dodge, too, had to adjust its 1968 lineup and offered a budget version of the Coronet with the Super Bee.
The Road Runner shook up the mid-size market, something that hadn’t been done since the 1964 introduction of Pontiac’s GTO.
Production numbers soared to 84,460 units as Road Runners nearly pushed Z-16 Chevrolets (86,307) out of the top sales spot while relegating the GTO to third-place in the mid-size muscle market. The Road Runner most likely outsold the Chevelle SS as the El Camino SS sales numbers were added into Chevrolet’s Z-16 sales figures.
Would Plymouth’s budget-oriented muscle car have been as successful with a name like Lamancha? Unlikely. It took the perfect storm of a second-year body style receiving cosmetic and structural upgrades along with riding the wave that was still cresting from the year before. All of these factors, combined with perhaps the greatest marketing scheme of all-time, helped make the Road Runner perhaps the most iconic symbol of the muscle car era.
What more could Plymouth have accomplished with its Road Runner in 1969? Not much. With F8 Ivy Green Metallic, B5 Blue Fire Metallic, (shown) became the most selected color option. A very successful color on a very successful model. (Roy Diehl Photo)
