Quick Hits the "Special" Road Runner 318

A little special sauce for the bread and butter 318.
I get it. I fully understand the market forces behind making the 318 the base engine in the Road Runner for 1973. Understanding it doesn't mean I have to like it. Nor does that mean it was the right move to make. If I was running Plymouth my plan would be the 340 as the base motor, followed by the 360 for the 1974 MY. I would have created a Fun Runner type stripe and wheel package for 318 buyers, essentially all the visual stuff of a Road Runner without the bird decal or the beep-beep horn. If some corporate honcho above me on the pecking order insisted on the 318 I'd go the "special" Road Runner Engine route. A 318 with a cam and heads from the 340 parts bin, topped with a 4 barrel Thermoquad. That hypothetical engine should have been available all the way till the end, the 1980 Volare Road Runner.