Not enough younger people in this hobby...

you guys forget the fact that even tho the young kids like the 4 banger FWD imports, back in the 80s mopar predated the fast n furious scene by making the turbo mopars. thes cars were innovative, and fun to drive. i still have 3 of them. a 1988 dodge daytona shelby Z t top turbo ll car, a shelby Z parts car, and a 1987 lebaron turbo coupe with full digital dash, and EVA talking car feature.

these cars were U.S. made. daytonas were made in ST louis missouri. the transaxle in mine was made by new process gear with a getrag german gearset, it uses a holley throttle body, siemens deka injectors, and a Garrett T3 turbo. there were various other turbo shelbys that are fun and inexpensive to own. the Omni GLHs, and shelby charger GLHs, the Shadow CSX, and CSX-T, and many others.

there were some FWD mopars that were captive imports. the 87 up laser, eclipse, talon were diamond star built in normal illinois, the dodge stealth, mitsubishi 3000 GT were jap made too.

the bottom ends on the shelby turbo models were made for abuse. forged cranks, forged full floating connecting rods, roller tappet cams, add a turbo to a stock honduh and i dont think you can get one to perform as good.

the dodge neon SRT-4 was a natural offshoot of the T-D (turbo dodge ) programs, the 2.0 liter in these are so close that the bores, and headbolt pattern are identical to the older 2.2 and 2.5 mopar 4 bangers. theres guys doing machining to adapt the 16 valve heads on the older 2.2/2.5 common blocks from 89 up. making hybrids. i got to go for a ride in one of these hybrids that was installed in a 1986 omni GLHS. this guy used large minivan 5 bolt big brakes in the front, and daytona shelby rear vented discs, and some other trickery.

made 425 HP at the wheels on the dynojet at the shelby dodge day in las vegas. was a total animal. he stoplight raced a vette Z06 with me riding shotgun. smoked this guy 2 lights in a row before mr vette gave up. and this thing pulled like a freight train up till 120 then he backed out of it.

hell the NEON SRT-4 is pretty killer in its own right. ma mopar even made a dodge spirit R/T in 1991, 1992. this thing was a total sleeper. it had an intercooled 2.2 DOHC turbo lll, with maximum sized 4 wheel disc brakes, and heavy duty suspension, a 5 speed transaxle. rated at 225 HP, it came with a 150 MPH speedometer too.

sorry im getting long winded on this, but if the kids like the FWD 4 cylinder cars, steer em toward turbo boosted mopars its the right number of cylinders, and FWD which is what they are familiar with, and you are at least keeping them with a domestic brand that we all love.

check out turbominivan.com for some crazy sleeper fun. these vans came with turbos in 89/90, some even with 5 speed sticks too. one guy has a wood grained turbo dodge minivan that runs 12s at the track, and is a daily driver.

ok back to old A body stuff im done with my public announcement LOL