When you read the road tests of old, it’s amazing to see the amount of praise heaped on cars that would be decidedly average today. The Dodge Daytona Turbo Z is a terrific example of this phenomenon, and while we’re not here to pick on it, there’s no denying we’ve come a long way in the performance game. Of course, in another 30 years, someone half my age will be laughing at the thought that a turbocharge Dodge Neon was anything to write home about, but that’s a topic for another day. Check out the low-mileage Daytona Turbo Z here on craigslist for $6,000.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Tony P. for the find. The 1980s were a tough time to be domestic performance car, especially since so many of them had to “unlearn” what was taught during the peak of the malaise era. It was a tough job being a car with any performance aspirations, as the government seriously handicapped its ability to pursue those ambitions without adopting efficiency standards that made guys like Carroll Shelby shake their heads in disgust. But Shelby himself was one of the brilliant minds behind Chrysler’s adoption of turbocharging and gave birth to an era of hot hatches not seen since.
The Daytona and its corporate twin, the Laser, were introduced with great fanfare from Chrysler. It was to be the foundation of a new era in front-wheel drive performance cars, shaking off the doldrums of the 70s and early 80s. The Daytona waa loaded with both performance and technology features, and the Turbo Z option got it some additional suspension hardware to ensure the chassis kept up with the torque-rich engine. Sticky tires, quick ratio steering, and equal-length half-shafts combined to make for a driving experience at the time that earned high praise from road test editors.
The turbocharged and fuel-injected four-cylinder likewise got a standing ovation for its surprisingly sprightly performance from relatively humble output. 142 horsepower turned out a 0-60 run safely under 9 seconds while the quarter mile stormed by in less than 17. Top speed reached just shy of 130 miles per hour, and it seemingly lived up to its goal of being America’s predominant front-drive muscle car. Car and Driver even considered the engine one of the best made in America, so perhaps we haven’t been giving enough credit to the early days of turbocharged hot hatches. The seller notes his car has been in storage for over a decade, and outside of one respray, it remains mostly original. Would you consider a turbo Dodge a smart buy?
After owning an ’86 I can say that it was a great car and lots of fun. With the leather seats and all the electric goodies plus the power to move it down the road rapidly ( 141) it was the complete all around car. Grocery getter to autocross winner it had it all. Except for the seats needing attention the price is right too.
Bought it’s twin new and when daughter drove it to high school boys asked her what the squeeze bulb (lumbar adjustment) was for. She told them it was for the turbo and they believed her. Aah, youth.
I’ve owned four of these cars in my younger days, including the Chrysler flavor. They are catywompus is so many ways I can’t count and that’s what makes them so much fun. I just love the look and the precociousness of these cars. This one deserves a good home, I don’t remember the last time I have seen on on the street.
Nice car but really enjoyed with the manual trans. Too bad, but nice car and price.
Our ’86 had the 5 speed manual. When went to the dealer to look at them they had a red automatic and a black 5 speed. The performance was hugely different and we drove out with the black one.
Seriously? We’ve come a long way with performance cars? Tell me what reasonably priced performance cars even EXIST today??? I would love if somebody put out a car as fun as this today! From Detroit, all that’s left is the Vette…. which is far from affordable. The only thing that really is comparable is the BRZ/86. Tell me how we’ve come a long way!
As an owner I’m biased but current Mustang GTs are certainly a performance car from Detroit. A claimed 460hp and runs on regular gas. I think it’s hard to beat.
The Daytona here is very nice and brings back memories of the time when performance was finally beginning to return. I agree on the nice price as well.
I’m sorry. The Mustang slipped my
mind. Of course, they can get pretty pricey, pretty quick. You have to admit that. It takes very little to hit the $50k range.
Bought a ’22 ecoboost mustang for about 30k out the door. Broke it in easy then at about 1500 miles took it to the strip and pulled multiple 13 second passes with the best being 13.2 at 105. That’s a lot of performance for the buck in my mind anyway.
Fred, my ’22 Bronco also has an EcoBoost. 300HP is plenty to have a lot of fun with and would not hesitate to buy a Mustang with that engine.
And when I replaced the muffler with a Flowmaster, I was shocked to see a 3 inch inlet.
Never mind the performance cars. What reasonably priced car or truck, of any style, exists today?
Thanks for the BRZ/86 call out JDC.
(Big flex here) Have owned my Beezer Bomb for 10+ years now. Oil & filter annually at Jiffy Lube. Beyond that, one set of tires and one battery. Period. It’s like I went back in time and bought a 1970 240/Z.
There are still a few performance models available 2025 Honda civic SI, 2025 Toyota Corolla. That doesn’t even take into consideration other compacts and subcompacts, in base form, that will perform on par with the feature car above in term of acceleration, handling and braking.
Steve R
Both the cars you mentioned are 4 door sedans. And I question the idea that there are cars in base form that would be in any way considered on a par with this Daytona. A Corolla? Really? The BRZ/86 and the Veloster are about the closest there is to this anymore. The Vette and the Mustang are far better performers, but they are priced astronomically.
I forgot to add the GR to the Corolla, it’s has 300hp and is available with a 6spd manual or 8spd automatic.
You never said 2dr, just performance cars. There are plenty of cars in the market that will outperform the Daytona that aren’t marketed as “performance” models and aren’t even viewed as a performance car, but put up better numbers. The 4 cylinder EcoBoost Mustang is the base drivetrain and is not marketed as a performance model.
Steve R
Great car and today its’ ethos is much much better expressed by the ecoboost mustang! The recent high output 2.3 turbo performance pack 6 spd mustang….oh yeah!
These cars were basically for the nerd dad that refused to buy his kid a z28 or a Mustang Gt.
Those criticizing this car probably didn’t live through the Eighties. The Chrysler turbo 2.3 Chargers were as fast as Mustangs and Camaros. And I owned an ‘85 Omni GLH Turbo was as quick as a Z-28. Ask the girl who was probably asking her boyfriend why that econobox was as fast as his “Z-car.”
The big advantage of the Omni GLH Turbo of the similarly equipped Charger was the insurance rate the same as base Omni. The Charger had “sports car” rates.
Automatic? Bah humbug.
I had an ’85 version of this but the upper was in a powder blue. Love at first sight. Got it with the manual trans. and just a blast to drive, but the achilies heel on these cars was the Turbo. I blew up 3 turbos on my Daytona before
trading her in on a ’86 trans am.
But a great deal here for scads of fun !
Be careful. True mileage of this car is unknown. Looking at the picture of the speedometer, two distinct things pop up. First, the digits are totally out of alignment. Second, the Trip odometer has the tenths of a mile in red with a white background. I worked for Chrysler in the late ’70’s. The red digit in the trip odometer means that the original speedometer has been replaced with a factory unit. Original odometers were always black digits with a white background. If you’re seriously interested in this car, I would ask questions and do a little investigating.
bought a used 89 daytona es turbo 4 cyl,very comfy looked just like the pic,bad gas mileage,if u wanted to accelerate it always went into turbo.and was always in the shop,it had a bad reputation for heating up.rebuilt my motor heads twice
About the only thing this car is missing is the Mark Cross leather interior. My 85 has it and when I bought an 86 Laser XT and it had cloth interior, it just didn’t feel right. Nice car. Had lots of fun in both of mine and they both ran 13’s and didn’t cost $30K to get there.
Now THIS is what Gen-x and Millennial gearheads might be interested in as opposed to that Honda Civic.