Forget Road Runner — the Road Tripper may be coming

FCA US, the American arm of Stellantis, recently applied for a trademark on the name Road Tripper (two words), for “passenger automobiles and structural parts therefor.”

Road Runner ad

The filing was made on May 23, 2022—just one week ago.

While we don’t know whether Road Tripper will be a trim package, option group, or an actual car model, Stellantis does seem to be on the verge of coming out with a fairly large number of new cars. The new “electrified” platforms to be made in Brampton and Windsor promise new cars and replacements of existing ones.

Road Runner 383

It seems highly unlikely that the new Road Tripper will have a 6.3 liter engine, even if someone averages the Hellcat and 392. The new Road Tripper, if it is indeed a new car, is likely a battery-electric. It’s also highly unlikely to be a Plymouth—it’s much more likely to be a Dodge. That, and not paying royalties to Warner Brothers, would be a good reason to call it a Road Tripper rather than a Road Runner.

1969 Plymouth Road Runner

The original Plymouth Road Runner was a clever package which provided the most performance for the fewest dollars—stripping out everything it could, including carpeting, to reduce weight and cost (for 1968, the bird decal was black-and-white!). The 383 cubic inch engine was bolstered by parts from the big 440, making it more powerful—but it had a single four-barrel rather than twin or triple carbs so it wasn’t too hard to keep in tune. For the 1968 model year, the Plymouth Road Runner had that engine all to itself. (For the full Road Runner history, see motales.com)

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