What does "r/t" mean

[hellonwheelz3]

I was watching mecum auction today ad one of the cars that came onto the block hat "r/t" in the description. What does that mean?

[Harry P.]

Road and Track.

[Patrick2005]

I get all the others like SS, RS, GS, GT, GS, etc but the ones like LS, LT, EX those ones confuse me, they don't mean anything other then to distinguish one body from another.

[Harry P.]

I get all the others like SS, RS, GS, GT, GS, etc but the ones like LS, LT, EX those ones confuse me, they don't mean anything other then to distinguish one body from another.

A lot of the "letter names" of current cars don't mean anything... they're just dreamed up by the company. The way it started out, many European performance cars had "letter names" instead of the American style of "word names," and the American auto makers decided to copy the European naming convention... so now we have an alphabet soup of "names," most of which stand for nothing at all.

[a/gass]

dodge called it rapid/transit.

[highway]

I get all the others like SS, RS, GS, GT, GS, etc but the ones like LS, LT, EX those ones confuse me, they don't mean anything other then to distinguish one body from another.

At least from what I've always heard, LS stands for Luxury Sport, LT is Luxury Touring, and EX the bleep if I know! Oh, one you forgot, LTS is Luxury Touring Sport.

[walt francis]

You for got SE special edition

[Ben]

The RT editions came with "round tires".

[highway]

so now we have an alphabet soup of "names," most of which stand for nothing at all.

I agree 110% Harry! That is just like Ford and the overused "Super Duty" name given to almost every truck they have on the market. There is NOTHING Super Duty about them, and Ford has ruined the name! The true Super Duty trucks were what would be the F450 or F550 today, and were mainly a commerical chassis cab. I drove a 1990 F-Superduty rollback when I was driving wreckers, and it was truly a Super Duty truck, not the girlyman fancy truck Ford has today. The most luxurious feature of that rollback was the chrome "F-Superduty" fender badge!!

[highway]

You for got SE special edition

I knew something felt like it was missing!!

That still doesn't help me for what EX stands for though!!

[stewart]

I could not agree more about Ford and superduty. It means absolutely nothing due to overuse.

I love that add bluesman mark.

STewart

[moparfarmer]

dodge called it rapid/transit.

PLYMOUTH called it Rapid Transit

DODGE called it Road and Track..hense R/T

[Agent G]

EX-pensive

G

[Patrick2005]

I'm sorry but a truck with a sissy-step and a grab handle to get in the bed has no right to be called a "Super Duty"

[Harry P.]

A few more vintage MOPAR ads from back in the day...

[Harry P.]

Of course, today a lot of cars are just appliances...

[niteowl7710]

That still doesn't help me for what EX stands for though!!

Well the EX is usually the base model, so I think that's - Everything Xcluded

[slantasaurus]

I agree 110% Harry! That is just like Ford and the overused "Super Duty" name given to almost every truck they have on the market. There is NOTHING Super Duty about them, and Ford has ruined the name! The true Super Duty trucks were what would be the F450 or F550 today, and were mainly a commerical chassis cab. I drove a 1990 F-Superduty rollback when I was driving wreckers, and it was truly a Super Duty truck, not the girlyman fancy truck Ford has today. The most luxurious feature of that rollback was the chrome "F-Superduty" fender badge!!

Not to mention that Pontiac used the Super Duty name long before it was ever on a Ford truck.

[High octane]

Road and Track.

Road & Track? I thought that it meant Really Tough!

[Chuck Most]

I'm sorry but a truck with a sissy-step and a grab handle to get in the bed has no right to be called a "Super Duty"

Well... it's that, or a truck built by a manufacturer which was, at one time, a branch of the federal government.

[Sport Suburban]

PLYMOUTH called it Rapid Transit

DODGE called it Road and Track..hense R/T

That is correct but should be clearified. The Dodge line up of performance cars were R/T for road and track and appeared in 67 first. Then in 68 started marketing there performance models as The Scat Pack. Plymouth just kept marketing the performance models seperatly then in 70 marketed them as The Rapid Transit System. But Plymouth did use letters that didn't mean anything. Fury GT, Fury S/23, GTX.

[Sport Suburban]

I also think the Ford Super Duty is just as funny as Chevy and HD! The Gm Parts Catalog classify's all 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton as Light Duty trucks. Then the 4500, 5500, 6500 and 7500 are all Medium Duty!! Where is the Heavy Duty's?

[txdieseldog]

To jump in on the Super-Duty convo.........if you have the right version, I would say you could still call it a Super-Duty. I have a 2000 F-350 crew cab dually with the bullet proof 7.3 liter Powerstroke with a ZF-6 manual trans. It only has the newer version of the XLT package of pw, pl, and cruise. Otherwise it has no extra factory frills. It has a push bar style grill guard with a louvered V-gate. It looks rough around the edges compared to the newer ones.

Barry

[Aaronw]

I also think the Ford Super Duty is just as funny as Chevy and HD! The Gm Parts Catalog classify's all 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton as Light Duty trucks. Then the 4500, 5500, 6500 and 7500 are all Medium Duty!! Where is the Heavy Duty's?

You kind of have two seperate things going there, light duty trucks are class 1-3 0-6,000, 6,000-10,000 and 10,000-14,000 gvw, medium duty are class 4-6 14,000-16,000, 16,000-19,500, and 19,500-26,000 gvw, and heavy duty are class 7-8, 26,000-33,000 and 33,000+ gvw. That is an industry thing, not Chevrolet thing. Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge have all stopped building real (class 8) heavy duty trucks.

So Chevrolet's 3500HD is a "heavy duty", medium duty (class 4)

Ford's use of Superduty originally replaced the Big Job (F-8) in the mid to late 50s, and it was for the 900+ series trucks until the early 60s when it went away. In the 70s or 80s Ford dropped the 400 and 500 series name and used Superduty on the beefed up F-350s (class 4 and 5) instead of giving them a number. When Ford brought back the F-450, F-550 in the late 90s Super Duty was more liberally applied to the light and medium duty truck line.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Aaronw

[Chuck Most]

And all Ford 'Super Duties' (I hate the word 'super', by the way...) have the same frame and basic suspension parts, aside from the fact that some of the heavier models (450/550), have a solid front axle on 2wd models. They can carry and tow more than they're rated for, I can personally attest to that!

Side note, I always thought R/T stood for 'Rotten Transmission' or 'Rotten Trackbar'. (I used to own a T-300 Ram... )