Buried Belvedere

[Tom Geiger]

sorry, have to disagree on all counts.we hope to sell as many as possible"

in a car & driver interview with bob eaton, "

"we put the 6 in as a cost saving measure" you see,

First, I don't intend to get into a debate. You would have to produce the article that Bob Eaton was quoted in. And even at that point, Eaton was the putz that sold Chrysler to Daimler-Benz and we all know where that went. In fact Eaton was only CEO through 1998, before the Prowler program actually gained legs. Note that 1997 production was only 457 units. There were no 1998 cars, with the program finally producing vehicles in 1999 with 3,921 units. The entire Prowler program only produced 11,702 cars including export versions.Note that Prowlers were hand assembled. No company would do that limited production under the "we hope to sell as many as possible" guise. In that case they would have pumped out tens of thousands to their dealerships and you would have had another Daytona/Superbird situation. That was not the case at all.

Bob Lutz was the head of Chrysler development at the time. Lutz led all of Chrysler's automotive activities, including Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Manufacturing, and Procurement and Supply. Lutz also served as President and Chief Operating Officer, responsible for Chrysler's car and truck operations worldwide. He was responsible for the Viper and Prowler programs. There are some very colorful stories in his book "Guts" about his time at Chrysler.I suggest you get the book and read it for facts. In fact, he was considered the heir apparent to Lee Icococa instead of Eaton, but he and Lee were at odds a the time. Later on Lee was quoted as saying Lutz "would have eaten Eaton for lunch." if given the chance. Lutz left Chrysler disenchanted, and joined GM for a while.

The use of the V6 wasn't for 'cost cutting', here's a quote "While criticized for featuring a V6 only, Chrysler's High Output 3.5 had a horsepower rating similar to (or higher than) the company's Magnum V8s of that era. While not making nearly as much torque as a V8, Prowler's light weight translated into very impressive performance figures, including off-the-line acceleration." The Prowler was a test bed for the use of aluminum for vehicle lightening.

[dieseldawg142]

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Edited May 11, 2018 by dieseldawg142