This little guy was a #Craigslist bargain last summer, and even though it looks pretty standard, this #DodgeRampage hid a Mitsubishi V6 under the hood. The #Rampage is the most unusual version of the old #Chrysler #Lbody platform, based heavily on technology from the old Simca 1108/1204. In Europe, the next generation of this platform became the Simca (later Talbot) #Horizon, and in North America, it became the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon. Although it's often said that the resemblence between the Plymouth and Simca Horizons was merely skin deep, that isn't entirely true. It is correct that the two cars share less than you'd think for cars so cosmetically similar; but part of this notion was Chrysler's attempt to distance the U.S. versions from anything to do with Simca/Talbot. The Omni/Horizon debuted as a '78 model, and a year later a set of coupes arrived on the L platform - in the mold of the VW Scirocco - the Omni 024 (Charger from 1983) and Plymouth TC3/Turismo. Although car-based pickups seemed to be fading away at that time, Subaru was having a fair degree of success with the four-cylinder, subcompact BRAT - and both VW and Chysler took notice. Chrysler had a compact truck to combat offerings from Toyota and Datsun (The Mitsubishi-sourced Ram 50), but VW didn't. VW launched the Golf/Rabbit-based Caddy/Rabbit Truck for 1981 and Chrysler responded late that year with the Dodge Rampage (a play on the @ramtrucks name). The Rampage took the front half of an Omni 024/Charger Coupe and grafted on a truck bed, all powered by Chrysler's 2.2 liter four. It couldn't handle very heavy loads and it was nowhere near as fast as the contemporary El Camino, but it looked nice and got great fuel mileage. For 1983 only, a Plymouth version, the Scamp, was also offered. But the Rampage never did take off with customers, and was dropped after 1984. Aside from the super-rare Shelby variant sold to a few California dealers in 1984, faster Rampages like this one are the domain of tuners and swappers (this particular swapper also took the photo). #Dodge #EngineSwap #ig_autoshow #carsofcraigslist #BCcars #1984 #1980s #eighties #sunset #Mopar #moparmadness #moparornocar #Chrysler (at Vancouver, British Columbia)
