1979 Plymouth Road Runner

For 1979 the Road Runner remained a coupe-only Volaré package, priced at $651 in the catalogue and requiring power steering to order. MuscleCarClub, citing the Standard Catalog of American Cars, reports 1,122 built for the year, a single secondary lineage this record does not treat as comparable with earlier Satellite-based model counts. TorqueFlite automatic was required with every V-8 offered that year, so no manual transmission is carried in this record's own engine-and-transmission availability table.^1,2

The Road Runner Package itself supplied a three-piece body-colored rear deck spoiler, louvered quarter-window plugs, a blacked-out grille, blacked-out headlamp doors, parking lamps and window mouldings, gold-and-yellow or silver-and-white strobe tape stripes, body-colored dual remote sport mirrors, Road Runner decals, argent or gold painted cast aluminum road wheels, ER78x14 glass-belted radials, heavy-duty suspension, a cloth-and-vinyl bench seat, a "Tuff" steering wheel, and the Road Runner horn. A separate Road Runner Handling and Performance Package, requiring the Road Runner Package itself plus the 318 or 360 V-8 at extra cost, added extra-heavy-duty suspension and shocks, a rear sway bar, and FR70x14 outline-white-letter Aramid-belted radials.

Two V-8s were offered. The 318 two-barrel, rated 135 hp by Consumer Guide (the brochure itself prints no rating), was optional and not available in California, where a 318 four-barrel took its place; TorqueFlite was the only transmission paired with it. The 360 four-barrel, rated 195 hp with dual exhaust by the same secondary source, was optional as well, TorqueFlite-only, with a 3.2 rear axle ratio available on coupes in place of the 2.7 that came standard with it. The FR70x14 outline-white-letter tire option tied to the Handling and Performance Package itself also required power steering, on top of the power steering the base Road Runner Package already demanded.³

Factory base prices for the plain Volaré two-door sport coupe, body code HL29, ran $3,956 with the six and $4,172 with a V-8, before the Road Runner package's own $651 was added on top. No engine-specific, transmission-specific, or paint-specific production breakdown was found in an accessible documented source for the year, so the 1,122 total stands without further division. Beyond the two packages, further options extended to cast aluminum road wheels, a T-bar roof with lift-out tinted glass on the coupe, a console available with bucket seats and TorqueFlite, and a choice of AM/FM stereo with a CB transceiver or with an 8-track player.⁴

The Road Runner Package itself was offered in only five exterior colors: Bright Red Sunfire Metallic, Sable Tan Sunfire Metallic, Formal Black, Ensign Blue Metallic, and Spitfire Orange, each paired with a strobe tape stripe in either gold with a yellow accent or silver with a white accent. Its cloth-and-vinyl bench seat was standard, and the catalogue notes the Custom and Premier interior packages were not available in combination with it, so a buyer who wanted the Road Runner look gave up those upholstery choices to get it. The Volaré coupe measured 197.2 in overall (with optional bumper guards fitted) on a 108.7-inch wheelbase, 72.8 in wide and 53.3 in tall, with a 60.0-inch front track, a 58.5-inch rear track, and a 19.5-gallon fuel tank on V-8 models.