By 1968, muscle cars had evolved from mainstream models with expensive special engines to expensive special models with expensive special engines. What the youth of America needed was an inexpensive mainstream model with an inexpensive special engine. The 1968 Plymouth Road Runner was just such a muscle car.
It started with a pillared coupe, the lightest and least-costly iteration of the handsome new Belvedere body. The engine was Mopar's proven 383-cid V-8, but with heads, manifolds, camshaft, valve springs, and crankcase windage tray from the big, bad 440 Magnum. With its four-barrel carb and unsilenced air cleaner, the new mill made 335 bhp with 425 ft-lb of torque.
Serious-minded standard features included a strengthened four-speed manual, 3.23:1 gears, beefed suspension with high-rate rear leaf springs, 11-inch heavy-duty drum brakes, and Polyglas F70X14s. TorqueFlite was optional. The interior was bench-seat austere, and the base price was a stingy $2,896.
The Spark is no 'muscle car,' it is far more refined with four-wheel disc brakes, stabilitrack and ABS. Its near 50-50 weight distribution is a lot better than the base Spark. Where the 383 Plymouth was known for lumpy performance idle, unsilenced aircleaners and growling exhaust, the whisper quiet electric Spark EV is as different from its ICE counterpart as the Road Runner was from a 225cid 6 cyl Belvedere with which it shared its sheet metal, base seats and dash. And it is different in the same way.
Every car is molded by its time and the Spark EV, as as pioneering EV was built to dispel the notion that mainstream electric powered cars - green cars - can be fun and don't have to be slugs like the Prius, Leaf or Smart EV. So while the Ferrari's, Porsche's and Jaguars of the 1960s were in a different class altogether from the basic American sedan, it was cars like the Roadrunner that proved American iron could be tons of fun.
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