The Plymouth Road Runner was a muscle car

Muscle car

Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high-performance automobiles. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines muscle cars as "any of a group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." Usually, a large V8 engine is fitted in a...

 built by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation

Chrysler

Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 between 1968 and 1980. In 1968, the first muscle cars were, in the opinion of many, moving away from their roots as relatively cheap, fast cars as they gained options. Although Plymouth already had a performance car in the GTX

Plymouth GTX

The Plymouth GTX was introduced as the Belvedere GTX in 1967 by the Plymouth division to be a "gentleman's" muscle car.It's most notable appearance in modern popular culture is in the television series Angel, in which the title character drove a black 1967 model.-1967:It was to be an exceptional...

, designers decided to go back to the drawing board and reincarnate the original muscle car concept.