Tom C

Reviewed a 1991 Dodge 4 Dr R/T Turbo Sedan on Jun 30, 2009

The Spirit R/T was a clever creation of automotive legend Lee Iacocca. His idea was to put Dodge back in the performance game in the early 90s, but Dodge wasn't making the most stylish cars, so he did the best he had to work with. And boy did he do some good work by stuffing high revving, high powered engines into Dodge's mid sized sedans and compacts. He called this new performance series the "R/T" model line, a throwback to the badges Dodge used on their top end performing muscle cars in the late 60s. This trend still continues but has changed its name to "SRT" , who still make knock your socks off power in cars you would least expect to blow your doors off. But back to the Spirit R/T. This car was the perfect sleeper car of the R/T line because it looked remarkably similar to the version Grandma drove to church on Sunday. But what grandma didn't have was a Turbocharged, intercooled, 4 valve DOHC 2.2L engine modified with Lotus manifolds that made 225hp hooked to a 5 speed Getrag Transmission. This is enough power to throw the 2800lb Spirit from 0- 60mph in 5.5 seconds up to a top speed of 151mph. So fast that the Spirit R/T was named fastest Sports Sedan in the World for 1991. Yes, faster than the BMW M5 of the day and many other foreign competitors. The Spirit R/T does suffer from a few performance drawbacks though, such as the usual turbo lag and torque steer. But once the turbo gets spooled around 3000rpm, it pushes you against the seat all the way through the RPM range until you shift, and then its the same thing over again and before you know it you have fifth gear wound all the way out and you're going almost 150mph. The car is very fun to drive and still very practical. When driving easy on the interstate the 4 cylinder can average almost 40mpg, that's without adding the 12 psi of boost the Garret turbo is capable of. The car lacks a little on styling and looks like a Grandma's car, but maybe that was Iacocca's idea of the perfect sleeper. But if you want one now, good luck finding one with less than 1,500 ever produced.