Find of the Week: 1999 Plymouth Prowler

Our autoTRADER.ca Find of the Week this week is ready to put you on the prowl on Main street and at car shows this summer. It's the first factory hot rod. A car that will turn heads faster than any exotic supercar. It's a 1999 Plymouth Prowler.

In the early 1990s, Plymouth was coming down from the K-car high that was being shared by the Chrysler brands. Reliant, Aries, and Voyager had all turned the company's fortunes around, saving it from bankruptcy. But as the oldest of those cars neared the 10-year mark, the Plymouth lineup – along with Chrysler and Dodge – was fading.

New cars were on the way. The compact Neon, cloud car Breeze, and the full-size models that would skip Plymouth for Chrysler and Dodge were all on the way. As were the third-generation minivans that would capture that market.

Until they arrived, though, Chrysler's brands needed something to capture the public's attention. And since 707 hp V8's with a warranty weren't possible yet, Chrysler engineers turned to design, building some amazing show cars. A few of them would make it to production.

The most notable of these early efforts was the Viper. Nobody expected that Dodge would put the V10-powered monster into production, but they did just that in 1992.

Plymouth needed something to upstage the low, wide, and loud Viper. Designers looked to the iconic hot rod, the 1932 Ford, for inspiration and created a modern version of that icon.

A bodlyine that plunged from back to front. Massive wheels in the rear, with smaller wheels in the front giving it an even sharper visual rake. Oh yeah, and the fully exposed front wishbones with wheels that stood out from the sharp vee hood with separate fenders.

This was a hot rod for the modern day. When it appeared at the 1993 Detroit auto show, it looked like something that could never see the public road. But that's what they said about the Viper concept too, wasn't it?

The Prowler concept grabbed all the eyes at the show that year, exactly what Plymouth needed it to do. What if it could do the same thing in showrooms?

It's hard to make a business case for a modern 1932 Ford-inspired concept two-seater, but Chrysler executives found a way. Make it a research model for production techniques that you want to use on mass market cars. Much of the frame of the Prowler is aluminum stampings. Common now, this was one of the first cars to make the move to the lighter material.

The Plymouth Prowler entered production in 1997. It looked just like the concept car. It was an amazing effort at packaging. The engine was put in a bay half the width of a normal car. Much of the interior came from other Chrysler models. The transmission came from a front-drive car, but was mounted in the rear as a transaxle.

I've avoided it until now, but the main sticking point of the Prowler is the engine. If it's a hot rod, it should have a V8. That's what you'll hear over and over. Forget that the car that inspired it made 65 hp on a good day. Or that even most modified hot rod versions made well under 200 hp in the mid-1990s. A V8 wouldn't fit. Period. And even if it had, it would probably have made the car worse.

The original Prowler used a 3.5L overhead cam V6. It made 214 hp. Compare that with Chrysler's most powerful V8 that year, a 5.9L engine that made just 230 hp. For 1999, like our Find this week, the 3.5L V6 was bumped up to 253 hp. More than any V8 in the stable that year. It let the Prowler hit 100 km/h in under six seconds. And unlike most hot rods, it would start every morning.

The Prowler isn't designed for speed, though. It's designed for looks. Getting and giving. And does it ever deliver. If the Prowler doesn't turn your head, you've probably never really looked at a car. If you wanted even more attention, and more cargo space, Plymouth would sell you a matching trailer that looked like the trunk of another Prowler.

This Prowler, for sale in Toronto, ON, is a 1999 model, which means it has the more powerful engine. It's Prowler Purple, which really is the right colour for this car. This hot rod can be used, and this car has just under 60,000 km on the odometer. It has a four-speed automatic with Chrysler's Autostick manual mode, one of the earlier cars to offer that feature.

This is your chance to own part of Chrysler history. The Prowler was the last Plymouth model sold in Canada. It will turn heads, and go quicker than you think it will, all while looking as striking today as it did in 1993.