Few vehicles have captured the hearts and imaginations of enthusiasts like the era of the turbocharged minivan from Dodge. Although our society has evolved to the point of building cars where you can practically survive almost any sort of accident, many of us still harken back to an era when executives actually deliberated over the virtues of a turbocharged kiddy hauler like this one here on craigslist with virtually no reference made to what’s under the hood.
See this? You too can smoke that $40,000 Honda Odyssey at the stoplight while hauling three rows of offspring and/or supplies with a minivan that will cost less than $5,000 to build. Check out this YouTube video of a turbo minivan embarrassing muscle cars at the drag strip for an idea of the fun you could be having. The ad for this Dodge hides the fact that it has the company’s venerable 2.5L SOHC SMPI turbo engine under the hood, which leads one to believe this is a government surplus auction where the auctioneer could care less about the rarity of the vehicle.
Up front, it’s all minivan with captain’s chairs and a column-shift automatic – and the 125 m.p.h. speedometer as found on Turbo models. These short-lived minivans packed more acceptable horsepower numbers than its naturally-aspirated siblings, offering drivers 150 b.h.p. and 180 lb-ft of torque. Hell, you could even spec one out with a manual transmission if you wanted. This was the enthusiasts’ minivan, a concept that doesn’t exist today. Despite the awesomeness of the concept, the Turbo van was short lived with just two years of production.
With an upgraded turbo and intercooler, this is the view most commuters would be seeing as you dusted them from stoplight to stoplight. Frankly, with the Caravan nameplate finally retired after close to three decades’ of use, now might be the time to buy the original concept in its most desirable trim level. Since this one appears completely stock and wears acceptable mileage for the year, it looks like a great basis for a killer sleeper build. Oh, and your kids will love you for it.
Kids in the 1990s didn’t love their parents for driving one of these, and kids in 2017 still wouldn’t.
If parents are concerned with what their children think then they won’t be buying anything interesting anyway.
The brats can get jobs and buy their own cars.
Better solution, don’t have kids and spend the money on whatever the heck you want.
Well kids in the 1990’s I can’t say but I can say my kid would love to own it. He has an appreciation for 4 cylinder Turbocharged iron. He has a stage III SRT4 and a crazy Honda Civic that produces an honest 422 WHP.
We saw Turbo Caravan like it at the import drags and of coarse everyone instantly laughed at it. After it smoked the tires in the burn outbox so much you couldn’t see it. When it launched it got instant respect. It wasn’t the fastest but it was pretty cool.
Several years ago I saw a Caravan with a Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo cradle dropout. Properly tuned will lay down a respectable time that looks so wrong. Have to hand it to Chrysler Corp for conceiving this soccer mom in a hurry ride. That was when they were still an American company and thinking on their own.
when it runs 12s and walks old stangs from a stop light they will…..
I’m dubious this is a turbo. The side stripe that is on it would have the word ‘turbo’ within it near the trailing (door side) edge on the front fender. The sport instrument cluster (125 speedo) was available as an option separate from a T1.
Enlarge the pictures. You can clearly see where the “turbo” insignias were on the upper-rear of the front fenders.
Dealers carried the Turbo stripe kit in stock long after the last year offered. There’s a lot of plain ‘ol Caravans out there with stripe kits on them….I sold quite a few of them…LOL.
twin exhaust pipes may indicate factory turbo, this van has them.
Cool… :)
If you look very carefully you can see that the stickers either are or were there, but extremely faded.
I had a blue on blue 1989 Dodge Caravan SE turbo, which I bought from the widow of the original owner in September of 1994; they lived next door so I’d seen the car pretty constantly. Maybe the best vehicle I ever owned. It was stock but had great pickup. Three speed auto was an excellent trans. I work from home so was able to keep mileage down. Had it for over 8 years before selling it for $1500 to a buddy(way over any book values I could find) who managed to drive it into the ground within a year. Still miss that van!
Good call on the ‘turbo’ decals. Looks like they were removed rather than faded. I was thinking the word was incorporated into the stripe. After downloading the pics, it’s evident that something was there at one time on both sides.
My 1988 Supra Turbo will leave it in the dust.
Apples and Oranges….
Lol NOPE!
230 HP 0-60 6.5 seconds against a minivan? You’re the one who makes me laugh. The Supra would also beat most “muscle” cars with big V8s. Also beats 1980’s Mustang GT’s, Iroc’s and Trans Ams. Almost as fast as a Vette. Not bad for a $500 Barn Find.
Why is this pos even on here??? JUNK
which “pos” are u referring to?
This is literally 2 blocks from me. Might have to check it out.
How many running 1988 Supra turbos can you buy for $1200 ?
And how many of those 1988 Supra turbos can haul your kids and their buddies, plus a bunch of softball/baseball/soccer/whatever gear?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Supra too. But it’s not really a valid comparison.
– John
Well, hold on here, I think people are going a little overboard with this, performance wise. I had a ’89 Plymouth version of this van. The turbo did add 50hp ( over the stock 100) but mine was by no means a tire smoker. It did have a voracious appetite for oil (1/4 every 300 miles) but I used it for a parcel delivery business, and it worked great, I just had to put oil in it every other day. Comfy thing too, those seats were great. It did have about the same power as my next Dodge van with a V6, and oddly enough, the V6 got a little better mileage. Great vehicles, saved Chrysler at the time. And simple to work on( I changed a timing belt in a truck stop in a couple hours once) I wonder if we’ll ever have a vehicle like this again. I’d sure buy another. Tens of thousands of miles I put on these.
You described it exactly Howard….it is a mini-van, not anywhere near a Supra. Hence the previous comments. And I would venture….hence no further comments from the supposed Supra owner.
Out of the box, the 2.5 turbo, automatic, would do 18.0/78 mph in the 1/4. Not exactly Supra material, but not bad for a 4 banger. I know, put the Caravan seats IN the Power Wagon. 44 mph never felt so cushy.
But let’s face it Howard, comfy seats in any vehicle at Our age is well..Comfy. We enjoy driving around in our living room….true ?
As much as I’d love jumping into a Power Wagon (yeah right) and putting it through it’s paces…truth be told, I much rather enjoy the supple ride of my 90 Cadillac Brougham with it’s paisley cloth interior and pillows in the rear passenger seating area. It’s an experience, driving your couch…..
I’m in the white woody. Completely stock besides a Ford Probe intercooler.
https://youtu.be/xmrNC9Ph7H0
Now that’s funny! Never thought I would see that! Great job JR, looks like a fun time!
A friend of mine had a nonTurbo Chrysler van . She had her teenager’s friends in the vehicle and for the life of them they couldn’t figure out how to put the windows down. No button.
There is a group for these on facebook.
Turbo dodge caravan and Plymouth voyager owners and info.
they are for sale quite often.
Mine is a 89 5 speed voyager.
I had a friend that had one of these, and it nothing to mess with. It would bring a smile to your face every time you mashed the pedal to the rug. Fun van !
Shelby intake, V-6 throttle body, T3 turbo, Volvo 740/760 intercooler, 1st gen DSM blow off valve, 3″ exhaust from the back of the turbo to the tip (with just a resonator), Shelby wheels & Yokohama tires, rear tube with the sway bay, poly bushings & KYB shocks (Koni’s up front along with the bigger front bar & poly bushings), S-10 air dam…
Not the fastest thing out there, but a helluva a surprise performer carrying a bunch of crap in the back. Bought it with 138K, stripped it at 308K and junked the carcass. Killer rig
sounds like you need another fiete T.
To Jeff (the article author),
It is my van you referenced in the dragracing video, and it is aptly named MeanMini. It might be one of the most well known of all the turbo Mopar minivans as it was bought and owned by none other than Gus Mahon, who was a pioneer in cheap go-fast mods to turbo cars. There are some articles online that tell more of the story of this van. Gus’s webpages are also still being maintained as a time capsule at http://www.gusmahon.org
Sadly, Gus passed away in 2002, and i have been caretaker of MeanMini since 2010, and she has been restored, and upgraded.
By the way the current fastest time for MeanMini is 11.77@113mph, which makes her the fastest no-nitrous turbo Mopar FWD minivan.
The current fastest turbo Mopar fwd minivan is 11.75@115mph (+150 n2o).
http://www.dragtimes.com/Dodge–Caravan-Drag-Racing.html
If you want to check out my racing videos and footage of MeanMini my channel is:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_vuumgMF6jPQ05p5jhja6Q
Oh wow thanks for posting. I was a huge fan of Gus back in the day and was sad when I heard he had passed. This was in the EARLY days of the internet. Very glad that MeanMini is being well cared for, awesome! I still tell people about MeanMini nearly 20 years later.
Happy to do so James. I often think of my buddy Gus, and still miss him!
Gus would be in his 70’s now, but I bet he would still be racing.
Hopefully he is happy that his van is still surprising folks!
I had an ’89 Vouager, with the turbo. Bought it in the middle 90’s. Back in the day (’87 ?) Chrysler sold a 300 hp kit for $1200. By the time I got mine all of the parts in the kit were available from boneyard Daytonas, so I made the conversion. It was fun to blow off Mustang GT’s.
I’ve dreamed about having one of these vans since I lost Victoria, my dad’s 1990 Plymouth Voyager, in 2005. She was a four-cylinder, so I suspect she was also a turbo. I pleaded with him to help me restore her, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Years later, we’re still reaping the consequences of always insisting on having new cars–going from one crap car to another every few years as the quality of auto body construction deteriorates. I still have Victoria’s key, fourteen years later, on my keychain and hope one day to have a Dodge Caravan that I can fix up. It probably won’t be as good as her, but I’m hoping maybe one day to have an early 2000s model.