The seller claims this 1985 T&C wagon is a “great barn find”, but it sounds like it’s lived in a regular garage since 2003. They are very excited about the “leather interior, TURBO, very good condition, and LOW MILES!!”.  Sure it’s a glorified K-car, but remember, K-cars saved Chrysler. You can tell by the dowdy dash that it’s not meant to be a performance car. The turbo was installed just to keep it from being painfully slow, as a V6 option was still a few years away. You can find this turbo wagon here on craigslist in Pacific Grove, California. So why am I so excited about this homely little wagon?

In the 1980s, Dodge began putting their new turbo engines in literally everything, from grandma’s sedan to sexy Daytonas and Carroll Shelby’s Charger GLH-S. They even put them in their minivans. Ten years ago I used to lurk around the Turbo Dodge forums because I wanted one of these really badly, and it sounded to me like guys were having a lot of Lego-like fun for hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.

Chrysler set the factory boost very low because they had to sell a car that average Joes and grandmas could drive for a hundred thousand miles without blowing them up. The standard boost was around 5psi with a 7.2 peak. The secret was the stock 2.2 and 2.5 blocks were very stout, and the wick could be easily be turned up quite a bit. I forget the exact specifics now, but I recall you could max the ECU out at 13 psi simply by adding a manual boost valve, achieve around 18-19 psi with a new fuel map and injectors, and if you went hog-wild with bigger turbos and intercoolers, the stock internals could handle up to 25 psi. By that point, you had a hair-trigger engine, but if/when you blew it up there were plenty more at the pick-n-pull for peanuts. With some basic modifications, any turbo Dodge can be stupid quick and silly fun. So what’s not to love about a goofy plastic-wood wagon with fake wire wheels and comfy leather seats that can light up the tires?

This stock 1985 wagon would have a computer-controlled wastegate allowing 9 psi of temporary overboost for 146 horsepower and 168 lb-ft of torque. The addition of intercooling in 1986 created the Turbo II engine producing 175 hp/175 ft-lbs of torque.

The tires are old, but the timing belt, accessory belts, water pump, A/C compressor, front rotors, calipers, brake pads, and brake fluid have all been changed this year. There’s a new headliner and the A/C works great. And just look at those two-tone seats!

I think it would be a lot of fun to turn up the boost and add an intercooler for a quirky sleeper that would be a hoot to drive and get a lot of smiles at Radwood. What do you say… for around $6k, does this one look like fun?