A friendship between Chrysler’s Lee Ioccoca and Maserati’s Alejandro de Tomaso lead to the long-delayed development a two-seat roadster on a shortened Dodge Daytona chassis, powered by FWD Chrysler mini-van engines mated to automatic transmissions assembled in Italy. When Chrysler’s TC (Turbo Coupe) by Maserati came to market it too closely resembled the Chrysler LeBaron that had been on sale for several years and offered most of the same features as the TC at half the price. Seemingly the only unique feature the TC offered was an interior covered in pillowy, hand stitched Italian leather. 500 TC’s received a Maserati built version of the 2.2L Chrysler mini-van engine mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. Lacking any distinction from lower priced models, offering poorer performance than RWD competitors at similar price point of ~$70,000 in today's dollars, sales were poor and after only 7300 were built at a cost of ~$160,000 each to Chrysler, the TC was cancelled after only three years.
Other "On The Road Again" episodes:
Running for the first time - Episode 1 - • First run in 20+ years...
Driving for the first time - Episode 2 - • First Drive in 20+ yea...
Big Problems - Episode 3 - • Big Problems - 1977 Pa...
Towed Home - Episode 4 - • Towed Home - 1977 Pace...
Wrong Parts - Episode 5 - • WRONG PARTS - 1977 AMC...
HOLEY RADIATOR! - 1977 Pacer - Episode 6 - On the Road Again - • HOLEY RADIATOR! - 1977...
Custom Radiator Episode 7 - • Custom Radiator - 1977...
Fried Transmission - Episode 8 - • Fried Transmission - 1...
30 июл 2024
