What happened to all the Mopar Performance castings and materials ?
- Thread starter wncmoparguy
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Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
The Saurekrautes were a disaster for Mopar. Then Brenda Stronich, Fiasco and now Stellantys. I do not see this in a positive light either. Much after 75 they fell down the outhouse. The early electronic ignition was good. Better than Ford and GM. The lean burn was a good idea buut probably would have benefited with newer electronics developments.
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
He will drop dead by years end. Maybe he could be the family Thanksgiving turkey?
Vs29H1B
Well-Known Member
As I recall Chrysler went to the US federal govt in 1979? to beg for loans to keep Chrysler afloat. The Carter Adminsitration set conditions for the loans - part of the condiitions required Chrysler to show it's strategic long range plans which were all centered on the K car, the Caravan / Minivan, and the Horizon / Omni as value leaders and exceeded the EPA / CAFE requirements for emissions and fuel economy. That was a big part of Lee Iacocca selling the feds on providing the loans. A major condition was that Chrysler agreed to scrap / sell / dispose of the tooling and inventory of older designs i.e. most of the V-8 stuff. Chrysler were allowed to continue with some tooling for the truck line but strict limits on passenger car lower mileage drivetrains were initally put in place before the loans were granted.
Who bought the tooling ? I would bet that another Mopar board has that answer....try Moparts.
Who bought the tooling ? I would bet that another Mopar board has that answer....try Moparts.
I vaguely remember that Chrysler was to get rid of a lot of the tooling via dumpsters and selling off spare parts in their warehouse when the govt. was going to bail them out. I know there was one near Wilmington Del. in the 60's. I went there to pick out a bell housing for my 58 Fury with a 350 B engine, they kept sending 1 for an A engine. I was stationed in Dover Del. so not much of a ride. By the way that place was huge, probably a good square block.
When I was doing my 71 Cuda I bought tons of parts from Jack. He told me that there was a place in Canada that had a hood with a hole in it, naturally it was a Shaker hood, and they had NOS fenders. He sold me a 71 Cuda fender with the gill openings, because mine had that part welded in at some time in the cars life. That fender was an NOS 70 Fender with the gill openings welded in because it has the part # stenciled in it.
When I was doing my 71 Cuda I bought tons of parts from Jack. He told me that there was a place in Canada that had a hood with a hole in it, naturally it was a Shaker hood, and they had NOS fenders. He sold me a 71 Cuda fender with the gill openings, because mine had that part welded in at some time in the cars life. That fender was an NOS 70 Fender with the gill openings welded in because it has the part # stenciled in it.
Yep, under the bailout the government wanted Chrysler to go in a new direction. Thus the mini-van and the K -car. They had to destroy all the tooling and warehouse stock of parts. A buttload of new parts were destroyed. That is why any tooling for reproduction parts have to be made from scratch. AMD has reproduction Chevy parts made from original tooling. I've used some and the fit was great. Is also why Mopar NOS parts are harder to find. What was on the dealer's shelves across the country is what survived. Chrysler also could no longer make med-sized trucks. D500 and such. That just expired a few years back and Dodge could start making them again. I never understood why the government did that part.
Now as far as the Mopar Performance division that makes all the cool aftermarket stuff like valve covers, manifolds and such that changed when Fiat took over. They stopped making parts for anything older than 2004 I think it is. Check out their site.
Now as far as the Mopar Performance division that makes all the cool aftermarket stuff like valve covers, manifolds and such that changed when Fiat took over. They stopped making parts for anything older than 2004 I think it is. Check out their site.
@Thomas Tiritilli
Which do you disagree with?
The fact that I'd like to know what happened of the question about why?
Who bought the tooling? Why wasn't any of it ever used over the last 40 years? I thought I read back in the 80's that it was destroyed.
In the dumpster
Some tooling may have made it out the back door, but I still think most of it wound up as Honda's or Toyota's.
mopardude318
Well-Known Member
Sure makes me want less government more and more. They are all dirty. Every. Last. One.
Ironracer
Gearhead
AMEN BROTHER!
Ironracer
Gearhead
Missing your point
Lol, it is common knowledge that a stock Sportster at 65 cubic inches and weighs 385 pounds racing against a 74 cubic inch Big Twin that weighs 500 pounds has a power to weight advantage. Add heads and cams to the Sportster and again common sense. Neither bike back in the day put out more than 55-65 horsepower stock.
Hell, even in the 80's thru the mid 2000's most stock Big Twin barely made 75 hp and that was with pipes, jet kit, and hi-flow a/c.
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6PakBee
Well-Known Member
It's nothing personal, just business.
Ironracer
Gearhead
jos51700
Green Bearing thread connoisseur
The Blast! was designed to be wrecked and I had dozens pass across my lift that fixed after being dropped repeatedly that looked show-room new with minimal effort and less than $100 in parts. At that time, turn signals were $5 (and flexible so they didn't break), brake and clutch levers were $10, and the shifter and brake pedal were $15 but the shifter was on a spindle so it rarely broke. The plastic was color-molded. Sander and a buffer and it was good as new. The head lamp mounts were the worst, it was impossible to straighten completely. Even replacing handlebars and grips was under $100.
It was designed so that 'contact points' were cheap and easy to replace. I had one that got endo'd at high speed that I fixed for well under $500, and it had the tail tucked up between the frame and tire, and had landed squarely on the instrument cluster. That was the Dumpster Baby (long story) Blast! and I ended up making two grand on that bike.
Lucky duck, I had to buy all 4 of mine.
I disagree. It was a fine highway bike and would run interstate speeds double with little stress. Performance king, no, but I put 1000 miles on one in one night, back around 2002.
HD was never about horsepower. They did, however make fantastic torque.
Ironracer
Gearhead
Hmm
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