Description
By: Matt DeLorenzo .
In the 1980s, Chrysler was heading for trouble. Stale designs and a limited number of platforms were beginning to show their age, and the whole business was in danger of death by K-car.
But a unique blend of talented engineers, designers, and marketers, led by Bob Lutz, changed the company's image and prospects. They started by exploring cab-forward architecture, first with the Portofino concept, then with the Millennium.
But the big turnaround came in 1988, when Bob Lutz asked Tom Gale to develop a modern Cobra, using the new Dodge V-10 for power. That led to the Viper, a steel-bodied running, driving, snarling prototype that was impossible to ignore.As a show car, the Viper was a smash hit, and when Chrysler announced that the car would be mass produced, the public and Wall Street applauded.
This was a company with a future.
Chrysler continued to develop radical, exciting concept cars, but instead of consigning them to a warehouse after the show circuit ended, they pushed forward and brought many of these cars to production.
By doing this, Chrysler changed the way the entire industry used concept cars, and it produced some of today's most exciting new vehicles - the Viper, the Neon, Plymouth Prowler, the hugely popular Dodge Ram pickups, and the Chrysler PT Cruiser.
