As the seventies were coming to a close, Chrysler's factory "musclecar" offerings were a far cry from the beginning of the decade.

In 1978 Dodge had the R/T and Plymouth had the Road Runner. Each was a cool car in its own right and if it had the A66 "Sport Pak" option it had cool front and rear spoilers, side window louvers and fender flares.

a good link to production numbers/options

Both Dodge and Plymouth wanted an F-body that would lure the "youthful" market into showrooms, something that would compete with GM's muscle car offerings. Chrysler didn't have the budget however to totally rework these cars, so Dick Maxwell, head of Chrysler's race group, was put in charge of pumping up the F-body. He proposed that the E58 360 4bbl motor (w/727 auto tranny) and police cruiser suspension (HD front and rear anti-sway bars, 15" wheels, HD shocks, 8.25" rear end w/ 3.2 gears, larger brakes) be dropped into the cars for starters. Visual changes included flat black paint on: the hood, tops of front fenders and doors, roof (from windshield back to front edge of rear side windows), bumpers, and lower edge of car all around. For the rest of the car- all Dodge versions were to be Sable Tan Sunfire Metallic (metallic brown) and all Plymouths were Crimson Red Sunfire Metallic (metallic maroon).

A front air dam was added, along with wide black wheel-lip moldings, blacked-out grille, headlight bezels and all trim molding. A special gas cap was added, and a stripe package ran over the roof and along the top edge of the fenders. The stripes were yellow-blue-red for the Dodge, and yellow-orange-red for the Plymouth. Naturally, the limited options of exterior colors (and poor choice thereof), along with the high sticker price at the time (around $7000-8000) hurt the sales of these cars (good news for us who have them today!).

There were many options that were available, but were mostly interior options (AC, stereo, light group, interior hood release, etc). Some exterior options were trim rings, wheel centers, sure grip rear, fender mounted turn signals, rear window louver and t-tops (which are very rare). Most cars had the floor console, though some came with a column shift, but all were automatics (3 speed).

Performance wasn't startling, some writers thought it should have had the motor to match its tough looks. The heavy weight, factory lean-burn system, low compression and lack of a 4 speed stick made for more looks than speed (like most cars today), but compared to its peers at the time it held its own.

Plymouth produced about 494 total Super Coupes (35 w/ t-tops), and Dodge about 531 (41 w/t-tops). And believe it or not I have a friend with one of each (yes, each with t-tops). These numbers are from a few different sources, and I apologize if not totally accurate!