The concept of captive imports is a business strategy that many of Detroit’s automakers employed beginning in the 1970s, but Chrysler seemed to been the dominant force among the Big 3 in importing Japanese products to America. Some of the more interesting collaborations involved performance cars that were completely unexpected at the time, like this rare turbocharged 1987 Dodge Colt listed here on craigslist. These were fun hot hatches that offered an alternative to the likes of the VW GTi and Honda Civic Si, and today, they are mostly extinct. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Tony Primo for the find.
There’s an era of automotive design that we’re sadly never going back to, and that’s the exaggerated use of performance language on otherwise humble vehicles. Take, for example, a four-cylinder, turbocharged Ford Mustang: Ford isn’t selling that car with “Turbo” script going down the doors and a large I4 badge on the fenders. However, in the 1980s, turbocharging was the flavor of the month (or perhaps decade?) and it was a big deal – especially for humble brands like Mitsubishi trying to make a name for itself. And, after all, this Plymouth Colt is a Mitsubishi underneath.
And the turbo hype didn’t stop on the outside: Mitsubishi ensured you knew it was a turbocharged hot hatch every time you stared at the steering wheel. When you look back at the marketing for this model, however, it seems like Plymouth downplayed the impressive performance for this second iteration. There was plenty of emphasis on the Japanese reliability angle, which always struck me as funny when being sold alongside vehicles developed and built in the United States, along with the general sophistication of the model. The first generation and third generation turbo hatches, however, were much more in-your-face about 0-50 times.
Under the hood is Mitsubishi’s 4G32 engine which produced just over 100 horsepower. Not exactly awe-inspiring, no, but you still have to acknowledge that even offering a performance-oriented model was an achievement. There cannot be many of these turbocharged Colts left in existence, and based sheerly on casual observations of what comes up for sale and appears in car-spotting threads on social media, the second-generation model is seen the least. The seller of this turbo Colt notes it just passed California’s tricky smog test and he’s asking $1,700.
One of the originals from the great pocket rocket class stick shift/hatchbacks.
I had an 84 Colt GT Turbo with the “twin stick” 4-speed. Absolutely drove the wheels off of it. What a fun car.
You can see in the Craigslist ad that the driver door has been replaced with a slightly different color, so that accident with whatever else occurred may account for the title situation. It passed CA emissions so may be sold there?
A guy in our local sports car club was driving a standard Colt that he was always finished in second place in class. One day he showed up with one of these and told me that my string of 1st. places was at an end. And that I would soon be looking for a replacement to my Civic. Well, he was wrong and he soon sold the car.
The ’85 version didn’t handle nearly as well as the prior one from 1984. Bigger, and much softer suspension-wise. He might have gotten you if he’d have been more selective on where he put his money.
He wasn’t that close on time!
I had one of these, can’t say enough good things about them. Little rocket was a blast to drive especially after replacing a Chevette, one of the worst dogs ever made.
Radwood Royalty.
Never saw a turbo one of these but with that manual transmission it is probably a blast to drive.