91 Turbo Dodge Spirit in MI, $1300 nmna

http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/cto/4833533844.html

I don't know anything about these so I'll put it here maybe for someone who does.

I always thought the RT was a cool car.

In reply to Rusted_Busted_Spit:

Common view of a Turbo III

I always gave the nod to the SHO, mainly because of the limited number of R/T's built.

JFX001 wrote: I always gave the nod to the SHO, mainly because of the limited number of R/T's built.

Drive 'em both, and you see they're not quite as similar as they seem. The SHO is nice (and a lot easier to find), great powerband, and sounds GREAT. The R/T is even stealthier than the SHO and is an absolute dog off the line, but once it spools it's crazy-go-bonkers fun. Still miss my R/T and would love to find another...but they were thin on the ground ten years ago when I had mine.

Didn't they only make like 1300 of them over the course of a year and a half? Bespoke transmissions and other bits scare me when production is that low and there isn't much aftermarket support...

gearheadE30 wrote: Didn't they only make like 1300 of them over the course of a year and a half? Bespoke transmissions and other bits scare me when production is that low and there isn't much aftermarket support...

More like 1,600. Parts support is quite a bit better than you might think. The only really bespoke parts are the cylinder heads (1600 Spirits and ~500 Daytonas)...everything else was also in other cars. The trans is "rare", but some more pedestrial stuff had the 568 too. Also, the turbo dodge stuff is hard to find, but it's not terribly expensive if you do find it, and there's still a pretty good enthusiast community from what I can tell.

I suspect I knew the owner of this car about 10 years ago. It seems like about half the Turbo III cars in existence are bouncing around SE Michigan.

I had one w/ simple mods. Manual boost controller (16psi) and open exhaust. Ran 101mph in the quarter. @3100lbs that is about 256hp to the wheels, so 270 crank? It was a real finicky motor. An afternoon of drag racing would see trap speeds all over the place. Koni shocks and a rear swaybar made it good fun at the autocross.

Mine finally succumbed to a blown ECU, I gave up on it at that point. I wonder how hard R/T ECUs are to find. Something to think about before picking up a non-runner...

Mike...you likely had a stock intercooler in it. What made it finicky was the heat soak in the IC. With a better IC, they run like clock work.

In the early to mid 90's, a buddy of mine was autocrossing one. The rims from his Challenger T/A fit, by the way. It suffered a major oil starvation related engine failure. I'm a fan of all things Lotus, and like it for the cylinder head alone.

He was a pretty good driver, but maybe too agressive, and rarely could put together a clean fast run in four tries. I remember once some numb nuts showing up with a new G Charger Corrado. He was expecting great things, like many newbies did. He was joking things like "Who brought the rental car?" about the Spirit RT, and "what in the hell is that?" about my Cortina.

I couldn't resist asking how badly he was beaten by the Dodge Spirit, and if he knew what the Cortina ran.

A clean good running Spirit RT would be fun. An honest 150 mph car, which was a lot in those days.

gearheadE30 wrote: Didn't they only make like 1300 of them over the course of a year and a half? Bespoke transmissions and other bits scare me when production is that low and there isn't much aftermarket support...

Here is a motor, wiring harness, and I think an ECU:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=spirit+rt&tbm=shop&spd=9797682743455992081

They're definitely neat cars...I've had 3 or 4 of them over the years and a few parts cars. Great motors....forged crank, rods and pistons from the factory, most weak points have been addressed in the aftermarket and they respond ridiculously well to basic modifications.

Case in point: Full weight spirit rt, open down pipe, all stock except for front mount intercooler, a manual boost controller, a map bleed and slicks....went 12.44, 12.46 and 12.44 three runs in a row. That car was hit, so I swapped everything into another Spirit roller, but added a 50 trim turbo and a 3 bar calibration. That car went 12.07 @ 118 mph severely limited by slicks that were too small.

All this in a car I was driving to work, usually had baby seats in it, had AC and was comfy.

In reply to 850Combat:

All you're managing to do is make me want to go up there and buy it.

And no, that would not be a good thing haha.

850Combat wrote: A clean good running Spirit RT would be fun. An honest 150 mph car, which was a lot in those days.

Wellll...not quite. Most of the magazine tests put it at 141-143 top speed. However, the exact same drivetrain in a Daytona (same weight, better aero) would break 150 easily.