Junkyard Find: 1985 Dodge Lancer ES Turbo
Chrysler hadn’t been making the K Platform for long before they branched it out into the bewildering K Family Tree that confuses everybody to this day. Iacocca’s Chrysler-saving (or demise-postponing, depending on your point of view) platform gave us both the worst car in human history and a Dodged-down version of the swanky LeBaron GTS. Here’s an example of the latter that I saw in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard.
The Turbo I 2.2 engine made 142 hp in this application, which sounds pretty bad now that the Misery Package™ rental Corolla makes 132, but keep in mind that the Slant-6 in the ’83 Diplomat made just 90 horses and the base 318-cubic-inch V8 in the ’85 was rated at 140 hp (the cop 318 was good for 175 horsepower that year).
The word “TURBO” carried magical connotations during the 1980s, as did creepy car-stereo ads and graphic equalizers on factory stereos. That scratchy joystick-based balance/fader control lingered well into the 1990s in Chrysler products.
You’ll find one in every car, kid. You’ll see.
The cassette tape levitates right into the deck, while dancers leap over the car.
The performance sedan that will thrill you all the way to the redline… hold you to the dotted line… cover you down the line… and impress you with its bottom line.
Self-driving Lancers were all the rage.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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My Dad bought a new 85 LaBaron GTS turbo 5 speed in 86, the year after I got my license. To a 17 year old kid who learned to drive on an 82 Reliant wagon this was European heaven. Wicked torque steer when you dumped the clutch but it would skoot pretty good for its day. One thing I remember about it was leaving my friends cottage which had a steep hill loaded with 5 people - unless you could get the turbo to kick in it wouldn't climb the hill so you had to rev the snot out of it and ride the clutch to get it to climb. In Winnipeg where we have no hills it wouldn't be a big thing but I remember thinking what it would be like in hilly places. Still, a fun car and the stereo brings back memories of Motley Crue and Scorpions :-)
Haven't seen one of these in a long time. I have an IS300 Sportcross which fits your 4dr hatch craving bit it's really more wagon than hatch. Super fun to drive too.