Turbo Diplomat (vehicle, sedan, sell, engine)

[MoNative34]

Was that ever an option? I never heard of it, but a group of us started talking about cars and someone mentioned that their dad had an 80s Dodge Diplomat that was turbocharged... I know there were a lot of cars with turbochargers in the 80s, but don't recall the Diplomat as being one of them. Probably a fast car if indeed true, but I can't find any information. Maybe it was only an option for a few years and wasn't popular so they discontinued the option. I dunno.

Anyone else know?

[sailordave]

Couldn't find anything that said a turbo was a factory option. My mom had a 1984 Diplomat. The 318 cid engine had good torque, lousy HP. Perhaps the turbo they were talking about was an aftermarket add on.

[41mag]

it was probably a turbocharged omni that was factory made option

[Drover]

Originally Posted by 41mag

it was probably a turbocharged omni that was factory made option

Uhm... what? Confusing a Diplomat with an Omni is like confusing a box fan with a television.

[Deez Nuttz]

Speaking of turbos, TV's and Diplomats.....anyone remember that 2 part episode of Hunter at the end of part 1 where he was chasing the bad guys, then he flipped his Dodge Monaco into a tanker before it exploded...except they didn't show him walking out of it until a recap of the crash at the beginning of part 2, then the next scene shows where he's at a used car lot and the salesman tries to sell him a new Diplomat, saying it's turbocharged...but Hunter instead requests they put the turbo engine out of the Diplomat into another Monaco, that Hunter sees sitting from across the car lot.

[duster1979]

As a lifelong Mopar man who started driving around the time they were making Diplomats, I can say with some assurance that a turbocharger was not a factory option on these cars.

Was he thinking of the Daytona? These came with 4-cylinder turbos. I know the New Yorker K-Cars of that era had turbos, but I don't think it was available on the Dodge Aries K.

The Diplomats were used as police cars in the '80s and had a 318 4-barrel that was a pretty strong runner, he may be thinking of one of those. But no to the turbo unless it was aftermarket.

[us66]

I concur, these were not turbocharged. However, in the 90s, the popular police car in Mexico was a turbocharged Chrysler Spirit. The only cars similar to the Diplomat that were factory turbos were a small number of Ford Fairmonts and Mercury Zephyrs, some Monte Carlos, and a bunch of Buick Regals.

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by duster1979

As a lifelong Mopar man who started driving around the time they were making Diplomats, I can say with some assurance that a turbocharger was not a factory option on these cars.

Was he thinking of the Daytona? These came with 4-cylinder turbos. I know the New Yorker K-Cars of that era had turbos, but I don't think it was available on the Dodge Aries K.

The Diplomats were used as police cars in the '80s and had a 318 4-barrel that was a pretty strong runner, he may be thinking of one of those. But no to the turbo unless it was aftermarket.

Very possible there was some confusion on what Dodge vehicle it was. Understandable since so many at that time were small and had the extremely "boxy" design... I know the Diplomat was larger than the other mopars, but it didn't seem to be that big of a car either relative to what was considered a "full size" sedan.

A car that size with a turbocharged 318 belongs on a drag strip.

[frankgn87]

Chrysler never offered a turbo on a v8 rwd.

[us66]

Originally Posted by duster1979

Was he thinking of the Daytona? These came with 4-cylinder turbos. I know the New Yorker K-Cars of that era had turbos, but I don't think it was available on the Dodge Aries K.

The Diplomats were used as police cars in the '80s and had a 318 4-barrel that was a pretty strong runner, he may be thinking of one of those. But no to the turbo unless it was aftermarket.

The Aries and Reliant did not offer the turbo in America (maybe in Mexico, but probably not). The leBaron and 400/600 on the same 100" wheelbase did, though, as did the 103" wheelbase E-Class, New Yorker, 600 (some 600s were 100"), and Caravelle, and I'm prety sure the Executive Sedan and Limousine also had the turbo. Perhaps the original post actually referred to the Lancer/leBaron GTS, not the Diplomat. The Lancer was a pretty long car for its 103" wheelbase, and was offered with a Shelby variant.

The Diplomat/Grand Fury police package also offered the 318 2-barrel. This gave the car the A727 transmission. The 4-barrel had the A999 with lockup torque converter and was considered more suitable for the highway patrol.