Not surprisingly, many questions from the floor at Chrysler’s 1990 model introduction centered on the Viper: Was that elemental, V10 powered roadster that made such an impact on 1989’s show circuit really going to happen? And the answers from president-enthusiast Robert Lutz aptly summed up Chrysler’s position as it looked to the 1990s: They desperately want the car, both for the image it will bring the company and for what it would teach their team about narrow focus limited production engineering; yet they needed allocate finite resources according to strict business priorities, and escalating CAFE requirements forced the company to spend billions on improved fuel economy, how could they justify money for a car that will drag the corporate fleet average down?
That is Chrysler’s story for 1990 in a nutshell: agonizing over how to spend the available money and struggling to regain the company’s long lost reputation for engineering, or facing an uncertain future. In the midst of that, the 1990 model year was one of promising upgrades to existing products rather than of striking new introductions. The new LH platform, with its adaptability to front,rear, and all wheel drive, will be the company’s big investment in the passenger car future, but that was still two years away. So, the order of the day was selected refinements to squeeze more life out of the products at hand while bringing in the new think engineering up to speed.
What Junkies are Saying