A four-door, V6 sedan from about 1990 usually is as exciting as the weekend plans of an ascetic hermit and are much less inspired. If you had your choice between the Chevy Corsica, the Ford Tempo or the Dodge Dynasty, which one would’ve lit your fire? Chances are good that the only fire lit would’ve been the rag in the Molotov cocktail that would be the final offering for whichever lump of vanilla-flavor sadness you chucked the bottle at. Even now, the V6 is still the “meh” offering for most cars. There have been good ones, don’t get us wrong. The Ford Taurus SHO’s Yamaha-built mill is a wonder machine and the Lotus-tweaked V6 in the Dodge Spirit R/T will floor you the first time you floor it. But the master and still champion of V6 power that doesn’t require you to learn Italian before reading the maintenance schedule is Buick, whose boosted mills have done wonders for both front and rear-drive performance offerings.
The L67, the blower-motor engine we saw in Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick Regal GS sedans over here in the States, made it into Australian rides as well. Yes, there are Commodores running around with blower whine and an exhaust that sounds like a rhino suffering a bout of rearward indigestion. And now, there’s a Barina that is sporting a wicked up version. Scotty and the crew have finished up the “Supermang” Barina and it has a date with the dyno!
The Dodge Spirit R/T was a four no a 6.
Barina – captive import of a Suzuki, Opel then Daewoo sourced small car. The Suzuki and Opel ones were pretty good for real small cars, the Daewoo one was turd rolled in local badging
Berlina – semi luxury tier Commodore, and what we are looking at here