In 1985, two Plymouth Turismos were pulled from the production line, stuffed with the surprisingly hot 2.2L turbocharged four, and re-christened as Plymouth Barracudas. The proposal to give Plymouth some kind of performance identity back got crushed faster than a cockroach (possibly with the encouragement of Carroll Shelby, who saw the hot-rodded Plymouths as a threat to his tuned Omnis) and the two cars wound up smuggled out of the back door and into private care. But, we highly doubt that naming a turbocharged front-driver ‘Cuda would’ve gone over well with the general public at the time, because it wasn’t rear drive, it wasn’t packing a V8, and with musclecar mania really kicking off in the mid-1980s, the original ‘Cudas were becoming a hot item…a gussied-up Turismo might not have fared too well.
Now take a look at this desert find from Arizona. Two doors…rear-drive…V8. Yep, the recipe is right on this 1984 Turismo. The front suspension is a Fatman’s Mustang II unit, the powertrain is a 318/auto setup, and the rear is a narrowed 8.75 Mopar unit. And it’s still a work in progress, but there is a sick side of us that sees this little monster as a 5.0 Mustang’s worst nightmare. Repaint the car with full “Turismo 2.2” stickering and make the rest of it look as beefy as all get-out. The initial buy-in for the car is $2,500, but until you have eyes-on, you won’t know how far the other side of your $5,000 Rough Start budget will stretch. With luck, you just need a matched set of wheels and tires and some hop-up parts for the 318, which we suspect is still dead-stock.
Craigslist Link: 1984 Plymouth Turismo 2.2
They christened this the Plymouth Barracuda?
The idiot who dreamed that up should be dragged along a rocky road behind a Hemi Cuda and then burnt with this abortion that shall not be named..
You don’t need a 318 with RWD to be a 5.0 owners’ worse nightmare. My (then new) 2.2 Turismo would kill Cobra 2 Mustang’s with 5.0’s in them. Just ask my old Rockwell buddies, two of whom, after I humiliated them in their 5.0’s, went out and bought Turbo Shelby Chargers…
I’d change the lettering just a little to read “Turismo 5.2”.
the wheel stance just looks off…… paints fine
Who knows how many hands this abandoned project has passed through. It will never be smog legal in California and won’t make a decent race car. Free might not even be a good value.
Steve R
Oh darn it can’t be owned in Cali. I guess it’ll have to find a home in the South. Lol
Leave the cesspool known as California, win/win.
Need to pop a 340 in it.
Throw a modern hemi at it with the 5 speed auto and leave the rest alone