Car Socks
Description: Plymouth’s boxy Belvedere GTX may have been late to the party in '67, but the division cleaned house on everybody else in '68 with the Road Runner. Unlike the GTX, this time Plymouth got it right; dropping in a 335 bhp 383 cid V-8 with 440 Super Commando heads and cam in a bare bones 3,000-lb, two-door hardtop with a 4-speed synchro transmission. Base price was $2,870.00, skinned down to a rubber floor mat and non-pleat taxicab interior. If you wanted carpet and bright work, you had to drop another $79.20 for the décor group. More power by way of a 425 bhp, 426 cid Hemi would cost you $714.30, but the base car was quick and simple, and that's exactly how most buyers liked it.
Description: The 1969 Hurst/Olds again used the 455-cid V-8 with W-30 heads, cam, distributor, and Force-Air induction. This engine, called the W-46, was slightly detuned from '68, losing 10 bhp. A H/O modified Turbo Hydra-matic transmission with console-shifted Hurst Dual-Gate was mandatory. As high performance raced into the wacky late '60s, the idea of a mad scientist conjuring up ever-more-potent 4-4-2s seemed almost reasonable, and Olds advertising was rife with the image of Dr. Oldsmobile in his baggy lab coat and silent-movie mustache. In a sense, there really was such a fellow: Jack "Doc" Watson, head of research for Hurst Performance Products.
