The Dodge Charger of the 1980s is a fairly rare bird in turbocharged form; its corporate sibling, the Chrysler Laser, even more so. At the time, Chrysler appeared to be placing an emphasis on whiz-bang interior features and the proven performance of its turbocharged four-cylinder engines to get customers into showrooms, and while the cars were by no means world beaters, enough of them are still running around today to seemingly validate a respectable level of build quality. This Laser is loaded up with all the goodies, from the digital dash cluster to the preferred manual transmission connected to the 2.2L turbo engine. Find it here on craigslist with an asking price of $2,450 and located in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Jim J. for sending this one in. The seller notes he received the Laser as an inheritance from his brother, but doesn’t know a whole lot about the car. The mileage is unknown due to some fault within the digital gauge cluster, and I don’t know enough about them to hypothesize whether a simple electrical fix would bring that part of the cluster back to life. Regardless, the condition seems to speak to a lower mileage example, or at least a car that has been carefully maintained up until this point. There is plenty of sun fade in the paint, however, so this being Florida, it seems likely it spent a few years parked outside.
The engine bay is tidy with some fresh looking hoses, but no juicy details are provided about a thick envelop full of service records. The seller does note it has a new timing belt and brakes, so at least those big ticket items have been addressed. Hopefully, the timing belt job saw other fixes made as part of a while you’re in there job, such as the thermostat, water pump, and other components removed when the belt was done. Surprisingly for a Florida car, the air conditioning does not work, and the seller attributes this fault to a hose that needs replacement and the classic “recharge.” Most Florida cars, no matter the age, have functioning A/C as a matter of life and death – hopefully, the fix really is that easy.
The interior looks quite clean, with nicely bolstered bucket seats and door panels unaltered by large speakers or sun damage. The cabin is a mixture of tans and browns, but at least it isn’t sixteen shades of burgundy like so many other domestic vehicles from this era. The fancy gauge cluster and vehicle information centers all appear to work save for the odometer, as the seller captures these high-tech features in the listing photographs. The back seat appears to be largely unused, and it makes me curious if there’s a way to trigger the odometer readout to determine if this rare Laser is a low-mileage specimen – it certainly presents as such in the photos, save for the paint fade.
Unfortunately, this is one of those cars that suffers from way too much wheel overhang. No matter how many different updates, versions or ground effects, they all looked awkward. Even Carol Shelby couldn’t help these with the “Daytona CS”. Pull up some side by side pics of an 85 Mustang GT or even an 84 GTI and you can see how much placing the wheels near the corners changes the design for the better. On top of that, the early 2.2 Turbo engines were a disaster. Chrysler designed the 2.2 by tearing down a VW 1.7 and trying to copy it. That wasn’t a success and it resulted in a noisy and unreliable engine. These cars couldn’t keep up with V8s like a Mustang GT and they didn’t handle that well with their torque steer. The 80’s american cars were about rebirth of the V8 muscle car and trying to play catch up to the quality of the foreign cars coming to our shores.
Other cars with too much front overhang – mustang II, 1982 camaro, etc.
Many new cars have too LITTLE front(& rear) overhang!
2.2 based on the VW 1.7? Uh, no. I think you’ll find that the 2.2, an all-Chrysler design, shares a lot of design philosophy and architecture with the old Slant Six. The early turbo engines were weaker than the later ones, but much of that was because the engineers were learning as they went.
84-85 turbo engines are the weakest of the bunch though, 86 and later features a forged crank, and 89-up is the common block (shared with the 2.5) with a stiffer block structure.
The best ChryCo 2.2 turbo engine is assembled from various parts: 84-85 head (due to larger combustion chambers allowing for more boost), common block (89-94), 89-91 2.2 Turbo 2 crank, 86-94 pistons, 89-93 2.2T2 or 2.5T1 rods, deleted balance shafts, and 88-94 TBI roller cam.
The block was actually supplied by VW. It’s a VW part made by VW and purchased by Chrysler. So I believe you are incorrect.
2.2 unreliable? Mmmmm, no.
The early 2.2 were known as the “rod knocker” for a reason. One of the worst engines ever when they came out. If you rebuilt it with more robust forged internals it was a different story. But stock they didn’t last
It wasn’t rod knock, that classic old 2.2 sound is piston slap. On some of the old TBI K-Cars, it would be notable enough to make the engine sound like a diesel at idle.
dodge charger = plymouth turismo/t3
chrysler laser = dodge daytona = plymouth laser
the laser/daytona are based on the charger/turismo/tc3 but are different
The laser was based on the K platform.
The Omni/Charger 2.2/ Horizon/TC3 was a different platform.
And the 2.2/2.5 was a clean sheet design. Chrysler already had a 2.0 L engine designed when the Omni was designed but used the VW 1.7 block with a Chrysler head to save money. The 2.2 was an extension of the 2.0.
The first 225 had problems because they used a 170 block and internals, causing oil usage and rod problems. That all got changed and those changes went into the 170, improving it.
And the Plymouth Laser is completely unrelated, as it is one of the Diamond-Star triplets along with the Eagle Talon and first-gen Mitsubishi Eclipse.
The Chrysler Laser was the rebadge of the Dodge Daytona. The period Charger was built on the smaller Dodge Omni 024.
No, these were not like the V8 muscle cars that were seeing a resurgence during the time period, but they were a nice long distance runner, and didn’t lack too much if the road got twisty. They just took a different driving style, that’s all. This car would be a nice project for a solid runner, especially with some of the modern go fast goodies available. You certainly won’t see many at the local cruise-ins! I really wish my wallet wasn’t empty at the moment………
The ’85 Daytona/Laser was absolutely marketed against the Mustang GT, Z28, Trans Am, RX7 – here is one commercial…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=PMmDE8nUMOU&feature=emb_logo
At that time the Big 3 were all contemplating going FWD with all their sports cars including the Mustang. Luckily they decided against it (after many die hard muscle car fan complaints) and focused on bringing back the muscle car. Now the muscle cars are more popular than ever and helping to keep them all in business.
They may have been marketed against the Mustang/Camaro, which I knew, and why I stressed that these were a different “kettle of fish” so to speak. Completely different driving mechanics, and could have (should have?)been marketed differently……
No, they’re not more popular than ever. Mall crawling SUVs and overpriced luxo-barge pickups are keeping them in business. Rumors abound the Camaro is on the way out.
My 1st car but in black w checkerboard seats. “Your door is ajar” :) hmm im in Tampa. Tempting.
I had the sibling – 1985 Dodge Daytona Turbo in gunmetal blue. It was a nice looking fun car, and had good power…until you turned the a/c on. Much better car than the Charger of the time!
My 85 Daytona with a stock internal 2.2 turbo 1 motor, like the one in this car, with a Zener Diode inline on the MAP sensor wire and a shimmed wastegate can with a bleed valve inline to help it stay closed to build more boost and only running a stock Shelby intercooler beside the radiator in the stock location would make 18psi of boost and all the parts cost me was around $150 and wasn’t a Mustang GT or Z28 around that could touch it. I beat the crap outta this car and only problem I ever had was stripping the splines off the inside intermediate shaft going to the pass axle. Oh and water pumps are external so no need to remove it during timing belt service.
I had an 85 Laser XT, with Ttops…digital dash would go blank in cold weather, drivers seat came off the frame, but under warranty, it finally caught fire at a redlight and became a carbq…..fun car when it ran…..
I had an ’85 Dodge Daytona in this exact color scheme. One of the worst cars I’ve ever owned. That 2.2 turbo deserves its terrible reputation.