The "Other" Road Runner! And it's competitors.....

A while back I wrote about how the success of the Road Runner led to the production of the GTO Judge. It also led to the production of several other cool musclecars.  One in particular came from Dodge. In 1968, They really stepped in it. They didn't think the Road Runner would be a success. When they saw Plymouth selling Road Runners like hot cakes, Dodge engineers quickly came out with a Road Runner clone.  They took a base model Coronet 2 door, and added the 383 Magnum engine from the Charger. The standard transmission was a 3-speed manual, with a 4-speed manual or a 727 Torqueflite optional. The other engine choice was the mighty 426 Hemi. Graphics included the famous "Bumblebee" stripe and the Bee with the helmet and goggles and smoking slicks for a lower body. They called it the "Super Bee."  While Plymouth sold 45,000 Road Runners that year, Dodge's late-to the party Super Bee sold 15,000.  In 1969 Dodge was not going to be left out. The Super Bee debuted for 1969 and besides the 383 and the Hemi, they offered the 440 Six-Pack. A 440 Magnum with a hotter cam, and 3 Holley 2bbls on an aluminum Edelbrock manifold. It also had a lift-off fiberglass hood held on by four hood pins, with a huge scoop, painted flat black. It looked mean, and with 390 hp, it WAS mean.  While Pontiac decided to go up with the Judge, other divisions also came out with Road Runner/Super Bee fighters. While the 442 had mighty street cred, they were often more expensive than a GTO or an SS Chevelle or a Plymouth GTX.  To fight the bargain-priced Road Runners and Super Bees, Oldsmobile engineers took the original Idea that Pontiac had for the "E.T " Tempest. They took a Base-model F85/Cutlass with a 350 V8. The added freer-breathing heads, a hot cam with 308 degrees duration and .474 lift, a high-rise intake and special quadrajet carb. The were only available with a 4 speed and 3.90 or 4.33 gears. Grossly underrated at 325 hp, ( The standard 350 was rated at 310 ) these terrors were named "W31". The stripped down badass F85s were as quick as the heavier and more expensive 400 powered 442s. Ford jumped on the bandwagon offering 390 and 428 engines in the stripped-down Fairlane 2 dr. Pontiac did eventually offer a 350 HO package on Tempest and Firebird models. These were also rated at 325 hp.  The car with the "Beep-Beep" horn obviously had quite an impact on the musclecar era. Mastermind