The Plymouth Road Runner beep-beeped its way into the hearts of the Mopar faithful in 1968—a mostly no-frills mid-size performance machine on Chrysler’s B platform shared by many classic Mopar muscle cars.

Plymouth paid Warner Bros. $50,000 in order to use the Road Runner name and likeness, as well as a special beep-beep horn inspired by the Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner cartoons, according to The Complete Book of Classic Dodge and Plymouth Muscle every model from 1960 to 1974.

Plymouth executives planned to sell about 20,000 cars in 1968, but people loved the Road Runner, and Plymouth ended up selling about 45,000 Road Runners that first year. Only the Pontiac GTO and Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 outsold it. All you Dodge Super Bee fans can thank the Road Runner’s immediate success for inspiring Chrysler to build the Super Bee.

You may want to check out our other Ride Guides because you’ll probably like them, running the gamut from Fox-Body Mustangs and Pontiac GTOs to Chevelles, Chargers, Jeeps, and classic pickups.

Meanwhile, you can better get to know the Plymouth Road Runner here.