The drag racers found out that the automatic Chryslers were faster off the line back then because the torque converter allowed them to hook up faster and get off the line before the other guy
The push button shifters were a bit geeky though
The automatic in my R/T was worn out when I got the car. The engine (440 Magnum) wasn’t in much better shape. The car had been sitting idle in a field for years.
When new, the car had been a graduation present for the brother of a good friend of mine. He literally drove the hell out of it and then put it out to pasture with 140,000 very hard miles on it. The body and interior were in excellent condition, but the drivetrain had had it.
Years later when I was going thru a divorce and was without wheels, my buddy sold me the charger for $500, telling me to pay him when I was able. We put a new battery in it and fooled around with it for hours one long hot day in Houston and finally got it running.
I needed to get from there to Fayetteville, Arkansas, a 500+ mile journey. A trip to Wal Mart for one case each of re-refined motor oil and ATF, and I headed north. The old Dodge got me there, but only after the humongous Carter AFB carb had sucked down a lot of gasoline at the rate of about 7 to 8 mpg. I even had a 6 quarts of engine oil and a couple of quarts of ATF left over when I got there! LOL.
In Fayetteville, I met a guy who had a nearly identical ‘68 RT, except his had black interior, and mine was white. The engine and Transmission on his car had been freshly rebuilt, but the body was badly rusted and the interior was ratty. So I sold him my R/T for $500 and sent the money to my buddy to pay him back.
The guy who bought my car put his engine and tranny into into my car with the good body and interior, and he had him a really sweet ride. He even put the worn out engine and trans into his R/T and found someone willing to give him $150 for it.
Good times, good times.