"GhostZ" (GhostZ)
12/02/2014 at 09:31 • Filed to: None
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"GhostZ" (GhostZ)
12/02/2014 at 09:31 • Filed to: None | 0
| 10 |
Okay, so all your posts about the 70s Dodge Magnum just gave me some inspiration. What if Chrysler went the same route as GM and used the 80s Mexican Magnum as a competitor to the Buick Regal/G-body?
What if it was actually really good? What if they sold this instead of the Starion/Conquest as their RWD sports/luxury car?
In this alternate timeline, alongside the K-platform, Dodge maintained a separate line of RWD personal luxury coupes, much like they did with the LX platform in the 2000s, starting in the mid-80s with the Dodge Magnum, and expanding to an early 90s version of the Challenger, Charger, and 300, all using RWD with optional turbos.
Imagine that in 1985, before the GNX, Diamond-Star-Motors released a Mitsubishi turbocharger on a Dodge LA-block 318 or 340, branded as a MOPAR, in THIS body:
And imagine it was just as fast as the GNX would be, maybe more so, the following years.
What if, instead of the Viper, this was the start of the SRT brand, specializing with turbocharged V8s? The brand would be divided early on into normal K-Cars, and high performance SRT or MOPAR branded cars. Imagine that the Dodge Challenger was a derivative of these.
How would this play out in the 80s? Would Dodge have influenced US manfucaturers to adopt turbos nearly two decades earlier? Would RWD be a mainstay in the 90s instead of all the FWD coupes they made?
And even crazier, if by then they had used the Mitsubishi relationship to make personal luxury cars with better MPG and power, instead of economy cars, would they have still gotten involved with Daimler? Would Mitsubishi still be around or would Dodge have absorbed them entirely?
There would be no Chrysler Cirrus or Stratus or Cumulonimbus cloud cars, just captive import Mitsubishis, and big honking muscle sedans and coupes with their own SRT derivatives. They would sell on patriotism from Desert Storm and HP bragging rights, not high-tech interiors or blobby styling.
Discuss!
Sweet Trav
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 09:43 |
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The funny thing is you could strap a turbo on a 360 V8 at the time no problem and it still would need 20lbs of boost to be anything special. 7.8-1 compression. Woof. Not to mention the economics of Chrysler at the time were so poor in the 80's that the company was constantly on the brink of bankruptcy. Chrysler has ALWAYS sold on flash and a few halo cars and marketing terms. Chrysler hasn't had a fully competitive line-up since 1971
I wish that Chevy would have done a special last year Monte Carlo SS with the TPI 350 from corvette or camaro or even a Turbo 305 and the transmission and rear suspension from the GNX.
itschrome
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 09:59 |
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Doesn't matter, they would all have rusted away and ended up in the junk yards a few years after sale any ways. the Legacy of 80's mopar would still be the same.. Or even dare I say even more tainted, As it stands with the Shelby line of turbo 2.2 powered awesomeness the 80's were a good time to be mopar!
Nobi
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 10:07 |
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...but if the PT Cruiser was made by Mitsubishi, it'd be even MORE of a POS.
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GhostZ
> Nobi
12/02/2014 at 10:09 |
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My god, you're right.
What have I done!?
Imirrelephant
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 10:12 |
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If you're gonna make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs...
Tohru
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 10:13 |
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You've doomed us all.
Trevor Slattery, ACTOR
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 12:27 |
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The Mistubishi Galant/Lambda, Dodge Challenger/Plymouth Sapporo was a damn fine car. No "B" pillar, RWD, 5sp. My neighbor had one back when I was a kind and I always liked it.
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Nobi
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 12:53 |
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On second thought, it may have shared a platform with the DSM cars as they were still around when the PT came out. An AWD turbo PT Cruiser has sleeper potential.
...even if it is still a PT Cruiser.
StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 14:34 |
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Doesn't matter, just had to post this.
472CID
> GhostZ
12/02/2014 at 16:08 |
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I like the way your thought trains run. It's too bad Chrysler had such a fragmented sports coupe line up throughout the 70s/80s/90s instead of focusing on one or two lines. (Magnum, Challenger, Conquest, Daytona, Avenger, Stealth, not to mention all of the 2 door versions of 4 door cars)