They weren't, although most of the initial design work was done by Chrysler Europe's Simca team, and a Simca / Peugeot engine was offered, though I never actually saw one. The car sold in Europe with the same name was somewhat different from its US spec relative. All US spec cars were made in the US, most in Belvidere Illinois, but some were built in an old AMC plant in Wisconsin.
At the height of its popularity there were 4 door cars, 2 door cars called Charger and Duster, and a mini pickup called Rampage. The Charger and Omni came in Shelby versions that went fast. I raced the Chargers for several years and got to talk to Carroll Shelby on the phone a couple times for help making my Charger beat V8 Mustangs!
The early 1978 and 1979 4 door cars were pretty close copies of the VW Rabbit and came with the Rabbit powertrain in 1.7 L form since the Omnirizon was quite a bit heavier than the Rabbit. When Chrysler finally got the 2.2 L engine ready, it became the engine of choice and could be had in several flavors from 84 to 175 HP.
In UK the bonkers version of that car was the previous generation sunbeam lotus. 150HP goes a long way in a light car. And the 2.2 lotus plant had a lot of tuning potential. Keeping the bonnet on was apparantly a challenge so most road going cars had rally bonnet catches fitted.
Indeed, I remember reading in this book (Volkswagen, water-cooled, front-drive performance handbook | Open Library) that VW made the engines for Chrysler, but the internals were different, and generally weaker than it's VW mate. The head was also more restrictive. The Chrysler version was carbureted, whereas the VW used K-Jetronic 🙂 I had an 83 Jetta with the EN engine. For a car with only 74 HP from the factory, that thing was quick. It was not that slower than the 1.8L 90 HP JH engine they used in the (North American) GTI/GLI.
I owned 4 of the Chrysler L body cars. All had the Chrysler 2.2L engine, 3 of them were "tweaked" Tubelab style, and 2 were raced in Autocross, the drag strip, and whenever someone had a hot car that needed to be humbled by a POS Dodge.
Note, you don't melt tubes here, you blow head gaskets and scatter transaxles. The head gasket thing was cured with O-rings (a Shelby Secret). He had a few secrets for the transaxle, but the real issue was case flex from being about 100 LBS/Ft beyond the max torque spec.
I went by this book, the original 1984 edition had the phone number for the Chrysler / Shelby performance center buried inside. It was not in the subsequent 3 editions.
Attachments
I one had a 1982 Plymouth Torismo 2.2 Mitsubish engine.
A REAL piece of... (add foul word here)!
Just driving it pieces were coming off of it!
A REAL piece of... (add foul word here)!
Just driving it pieces were coming off of it!
On a live jazz album I had there was patter between the tracks. The leader was talking about
one of the guys in the band years before. They were touring in Belgium and a bandmate asked him if he had tried the Elephant beer? He responded “No, I drink to forget”.
Bada boom!
one of the guys in the band years before. They were touring in Belgium and a bandmate asked him if he had tried the Elephant beer? He responded “No, I drink to forget”.
Bada boom!
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Apparently Norton motorcycle’s primary chain case would often crack if the engine was extremely hot rodded. about 10 years ago I heard of a company that would rebuild the bike to modern specs. Like the shop in a link a couple posts up that rebuilt the old Alfas for a fortune. The Norton guys would build up a half inch thick layer of aluminum weld beads inside the case in areas to reinforce it. You could have done that to the Chrysler trannie case.
The Plymouth Tourismo was a 2 door L body exactly like my 1982 Dodge Charger 2.2. There were no Mitsubishi engines installed in L bodies at the factory. The 2.2L engine was a Chrysler design. Most were build in Mexico.
The 2.2L engine was Chrysler's first all metric design. The US built L body cars had all SAE fasteners, unlike the French built Simca Horizon sold in Europe, so you needed two sets of tools to work on the cars.
The Omnirizon as the cars were known had a very mixed reaction among the buyers, and the automotive press, especially in the early years. When it arrived in 1978 Motor Trend called it "Car of the Year" while Consumer Reports said " Unsafe at any Speed, the next Corvair."
Like all front wheel drive cars there is a tendency for "trailing throttle understeer." A driver inexperienced with FWD may lose control of the car in "performance driving" situations. The Omni was the first mass produced FWD subcompact car sold in the US. More than one test track driver wrecked an Omnirizon.
A trait shared with the VW Rabbit (same rear suspension) was the tendency to lift the inside rear wheel in hard cornering situations. One local track announcer said it looked like a male dog at a fire hydrant. Most called it the VW salute as a high powered VW or Omni passed a more prestigious car on the track.
The cars were "rattle boxes" which was pretty typical of most US built cars in the early 80's.....ever been in an 82 Camaro or Trans Am? The little 4 cylinder Mustang was another rattle box. Any inline 4 cylinder engine by design will produce far more vibration with lots of harmonics than all other engine styles. Mitsubishi's balance shaft system used counter rotating weighted shafts to reduce the harmonic shake. Chrysler and others would license this tech later in the 80's.
I raced my 1982 Charger 2.2 at the drag strip and in some local autocross events. Once each year I pulled the engine and went over everything, tightened all loose stuff, replaced the timing belt...…
One of Chryslers adverts claimed that the 82 Charger had the lowest CD of any car sold in America....."Aerodynamically more slippery than a Corvette." I was driving my 82 Charger on a empty road one morning when Mr. Gold Chains flew past me in a new Corvette (probably a 1985). I took this as a challenge and decided test that claim. I stuck the pedal on the floor, took 3rd and 4th gear to the limit and hit 5th. After about a minute I passed the Vette, and held the pedal on the floor. He was obviously unhappy, but couldn't catch me. My car eventually began bouncing off the 7200 RPM rev limiter imposed by Shelby's special EPROM chip which made this fun possible.
I let off the gas when the rear view mirror unscrewed itself and fell on the floor. The 85 MPH speedo was pegged, but math doesn't lie. I figured out the speed knowing the final drive ratio and tire size.....154 MPH.
Turbo charging and Nitrous injection worked quite well on the 2.2 L Chrysler engine. Shelby offered a complete "Super 60" kit (60mm turbo inlet) that would take the little 2.2 to 300+ HP, a power level unheard of in the mid 80's. Chrysler put the 145 HP version of the turbo 2.2 and a higher power (don't remember the rating) turbo 2.5 in the minivan, and as with most 4 wheeled things, people modified them and raced them. I did see some tire smoking minivans at the drag strip many years ago.
I quite fancied an Integrale but chose the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R. I had lots of fun modifying it and upsetting just about everything on the road. 911's were my favourite kills. Still have it along side my Focus work horse. Shared album - Martin Gulliver - Google Photos
The Omnirizon did inherit a lot of its chassis design from the Simca car, which itself was a shortened version of another car. All of the engines used in the European versions were smaller than anything used in the US. The US spec cars had different subframe rails to accommodate the VW 1.7L engine / transaxle used in the first three years, and the Chrysler 2.2L that would arrive in 1981.
The 2.2L arrived at 84 HP with a 4 speed manual transaxle designed for that power level. In the 1984 a 5th gear was added to the existing 4 speed transaxle with a stamped steel housing extension hanging into the drivers side wheel well. The internals were upgraded for new turbo engine rated at 142 HP and 160 Lbs/Ft of torque. The case was pretty well stuffed with minimal internal clearances. Anything sold by Dodge including all of the Shelby variants and the HP engine controllers were limited to 175 Lbs/Ft of torque to avoid warranty claims.
Shelby made and sold an external aluminum girdle to combat case flex. I tried one, and broke it.
The bigger G body cars (Dodge Daytona, Chrysler Laser) the K cars and the minivans had larger engine bays and a bigger transaxle to eat all of the torque seen in those tire smoking minivans. The larger A555 transaxle would not fit in the L body even with some serious smoke wrench work.
Marty,
I would also take a 90s Pulsar!
But I'd take a Starlet and have fun with that too.
My favourite car to imagine upgrading thanks to Gran Turismo! The Honda City turbo was another Japanese car rarely seen in the UK, that I'd like to own.
Of course then complete fantasy cars like the Sbarro Super 12....
I would also take a 90s Pulsar!
But I'd take a Starlet and have fun with that too.
My favourite car to imagine upgrading thanks to Gran Turismo! The Honda City turbo was another Japanese car rarely seen in the UK, that I'd like to own.
Of course then complete fantasy cars like the Sbarro Super 12....
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A friend was ripping apart his first generation VW Scirocco and installing a 16V motor from a later car at the same time I was stuffing a turbo 2.2 from a 1984 Daytona into my 1982 Charger. Both of us bragged about how "my car will smoke your car" but mine was finished before his, and after a ride in mine, the smack talk ceased and the race never happened.
I was over at his medical equipment repair shop one night. There was a guy there bragging about his brand new BMW M3, and how fast it was, when my friend pointed at me and said that I had a 4 cylinder Dodge Charger that would smoke his M3. He laughed and said something like "that red POS?"
We lined up on a long (maybe a mile) road in a warehouse district on weekend night where nobody was around. As with just about any race between a FWD and a RWD car, he got me off the line, but I screamed by him at the top of second gear, hit third and watched him fade in the rearview. Never saw the car or the guy again.
Ha, yes M3 driver's used to get stomped too but I once stripped third gear in the process! I still won though! On the subject of Lancias, my favourite was the 037 Rallye. Sadly unaffordable but I did own a Montecarlo Spyder that shared the same center section. The 037 and Le Mans cars had tubular sections grafted on front and rear to accommodate the race bits. Shared album - Martin Gulliver - Google Photos
How often are well accomplished audio builders also well accomplished car builders? Seems like the same trait only different "orthogonal" contexts...
I found that blowing up engines and other car parts was far more expensive than tubes and transformers. Guess which hobby survived into retirement?