1969 Plymouth Road Runner Hemi – 12.91 seconds
Price New: $3,900
Price Now: $240,000
When it first appeared in 1968, the Roadrunner proved to be a very influential and essential muscle car. It introduced the new trend of inexpensive and fun cars and was also a strong seller, affecting the whole segment. The entire idea behind the Roadrunner was simple. that was to present a low-priced but still powerful model and attract performance-minded buyers on a limited budget (via Riga Master Workshop).
The most appealing thing about the Roadrunner was the fact that Plymouth used the popular cartoon character. Chrysler paid $60,000 for the rights to use the name and design, and everyone thought the company was crazy for doing so. The sales results proved everybody wrong. The Roadrunner was the first muscle car with crazy graphics and the car that started the trend. The Roadrunner had a bench seat, no luxury options, and manual steering. But it came with the powerful 383 V8 as the base engine and buyers could also opt for the 440 or the mythical Hemi 426.