The Chrysler Hemi stands tall in the hall of engines. Drag racers, road racers, circle-track guys, hot rodders, muscle car freaks, and even safety enthusiasts love the Hemi. (Google “Chrysler Air Raid Siren” if you don’t get that last joke.) While the second-generation “Street Hemi” is without question the most popular, and while the third-gen late-model Hemi is holding the torch, it’s the first-generation engine, the one known as the “FirePower V8” in Dodge lexicon, that started it all. At 331 cubic inches, the 180hp standard version wasn’t bad, but it was the 300hp version that turned the 1955 Chrysler C-300 into a barn-burner that started the legacy.
The Dodge Rampage, on the other hand, is a barely memorable ute that was only made for a couple of years in the 1980s, well outside of any chance of popularity and only remembered as Mopar’s one attempt at the market. Based on the L-body Omni platform, the Rampage (and it’s Plymouth Scamp twin) touted the benefits of a half-ton front-drive pickup truck while simultaneously getting decent fuel economy and looking like a VW Rabbit truck rear-ended a Dodge Charger 2.2. Not exactly performance-car fodder there, is it?
Luckily, one creative should married the two concepts together, slathered everything in Prowler Flame Orange Pearlcoat, and after enjoying it, has put their creation on sale. This 1984 Rampage is awesome purely because all the wrongs were fixed. The 331ci Hemi is bolted up to a 727 automatic, there has been tens of thousands of hours spent bringing the Rampage to a show-quality condition, and all we want to do is just drive it. We don’t care where, we just want to drive the wheels off of this thing. A Hemi-powered Rampage just sounds like a riot to wheel around, doesn’t it? We can appreciate how pretty it is, but at the end of the day we just want to cruise it up and down a highway while that FirePower sings.
eBay Link: 1984 Dodge Rampage
What a waste of a Hemi!
wow, that is something I would like to have for myself.
Now there’s a Rampage I can live with.
The motor weighs more than the piece of shit its sitting in!
That so called ‘Pos’ can run low 13’s/high 12’s with a mostly stock 2.2 Turbo @260hp. Where’s your 260hp V8? Stuck in the 14’s.