Chrysler was on a roll in the 1980s. Dangerously close to bankruptcy, the company turned things around by 1983 and went on to buy AMC, Jeep, and Lamborghini, while launching an entirely new vehicle segment with the minivan—all in the span of a few years.
Chrysler also had the aptly named Diamond Star Motors, a partnership with Mitsubishi that led to some of the most iconic performance cars of the 1990s. And one of them originated—at least in part—from the 1988 Dodge Intrepid concept.
Photo by: Dodge
No, we aren’t suggesting the Dodge Intrepid sedan is an iconic 1990s performance car. It isn’t. This sleek concept is actually a forerunner to the Dodge Stealth/Mitsubishi 3000GT. It debuted 38 years ago at the 1987 Detroit Auto Show, looking properly futuristic but also reasonably close to production.
Unlike the radical Dodge M4S mid-engine prototype from a few years prior, this one had a full leather interior with a mix of traditional VDO gauges and displays. The standard front-opening doors had functional windows. Outside, it wore a deliciously 1980s two-tone multicoat mix of candy and orange-red up top, with silver down low. At the very top, glass encompassed the entire roof like an aircraft canopy. Not everything was production-spec.
Similar to the M4S, the Intrepid concept had a mid-mount turbocharged four-cylinder engine, mated to a five-speed manual transmission. It wasn’t a fire-breathing race engine, but rather, a 2.2-liter DOHC mill known as the Turbo III. Yes, it’s that Turbo III, crowned with a Lotus-designed 16-valve head making 225 horsepower for the concept. This engine would go on to power the Dodge Spirit R/T and Dodge Daytona IROC R/T in the early 1990s—the company’s most powerful production cars of the four-cylinder “turbo Dodge” era.
It’s appropriate, then, that the Intrepid concept was built on a modified version of the Dodge Daytona’s G-body platform. The 95.4-inch wheelbase was a couple of inches shorter than the Daytona, and at 45.6 inches tall, it was noticeably lower to the ground. It rode on staggered directional wheels: 16-inch rims with 205/55-series tires in front and 17 inchers at the back wearing 245/50s. It incorporated four-wheel independent suspension, something rarely seen on American performance cars of the era.
The concept looked nothing like the Daytona on the outside. Dodge’s original press release called the Intrepid a “concept for tomorrow’s Dodge,” but nobody at the time realized just how true that was. When the Dodge Stealth production car debuted a few years later, it largely mirrored the concept’s overall design.
In particular, the Stealth’s wide, low front clip with rectangular driving lamps, pop-up headlights, and triangular turn signals were virtually identical. At the back, the flat trunk with notched taillights came from the concept. Even the side vents closely resemble those from the Intrepid, albeit toned down since the Stealth’s V-6 engine, be it naturally aspirated or twin-turbocharged, was in front.
Photo by: Dodge
Dodge’s original press release called the Intrepid a ‘concept for tomorrow’s Dodge,’ but nobody at the time realized just how true that was.
The other part of this story is, of course, the Mitsubishi 3000GT. The Stealth and 3000GT were co-developed by Chrysler and Mitsubishi, with the underpinnings and powertrain coming from Mitsubishi. The Intrepid concept predated the Mitsubishi HSX concept—essentially a near-production 3000GT—by a couple of years. Both production cars have distinctive styling, but the Intrepid influenced Mitsubishi’s styling as well, especially at the front and on the doors, which have Intrepid-esque scallops down low that lead into the side vents.
The show floor at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) was crowded with eye-turning cars back in 1987, the amazing Oldsmobile Aerotech concept being among them. The Intrepid concept became lost in the crowd and, in the decades since, largely forgotten despite its role in bringing two 1990s performance icons to life.
We don’t know what ultimately happened to this sleek concept, and sadly, neither does Dodge. That likely means it was crushed at some point, an unfortunate but all-too-common end for concept cars like this.
