From 1997 to 2001, over 10 years ago, we were introduced to a new kind of hot rod. The “mail order” hot rod. Well, maybe you couldn’t exactly order one through the mail, but you could take a stroll down to your local Plymouth dealership and pick one up. No bloody knuckles from turning countless wrenches, welding, hours of body straightening, paint booths, wet-sanding, and polishing. These baby’s came right off the lot ready to roll…

The Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler was like no other vehicle that has ever been mass produced commercially. Designed with the beautiful lines and features of the 1930’s roadster, the Prowler is souped up as a 1950’s custom project with the modern flare of a sleek Dodge Viper.

The custom hot rod theme didn’t stop at its looks, as the front wishbone suspension was modern, but also designed to resemble that of the old. Despite its old fashioned rear-wheel drive, the prowler still maintained the modern amenity of independent suspension.

While not designed for the most comfortable ride, the Prowler could hold its own on the road using its front 225/45VR17’s wheels in the front and 295/40VR20’s in the back. With the size of these tires, and the fact that the rear trunk was basically used to store the roadsters top, there was no room for a spare, which means that these tires came standard as “run flats”.

The largest complaint from consumers during the Prowlers existence was its V-6 engine which was introduced with only 214 horsepower. Considering the standard for the American Hot Rod Association is a 300 horsepower V-8, the Prowler got off on a bit of a rocky start. Listening to such criticisms, the Prowler was eventually boosted to 253 horsepower and 255 lb-ft of torque, which was actually enough to lay a thick bead of smoking rubber upon stomping on the accelerator.

Even with its newfound horsepower, the Prowlers dual exhaust was never quite able to successfully mimic the low rumble of a classic hot rod roadster, which is why a popular conversion for some enthusiasts was a V-8 transplant. While not easy, this offered quite the surprise at a red light for the traditional hot rodder’s who thought the standard Prowler slow!

But actually slow, the prowler was not. In 1997 the original 3.5 liter (214 horsepower) was only able to roll from 0-60 in over 7 seconds, which is a snails pace to todays standards. The new 253 horse version unveiled in 1999 however, was a full second quicker at a 6.3 second 0-60, which is definitely respectable.

Other complaints were that purple was your only color choice back in 1997, which was later opened up to other colors, such as yellow and red. Also on the complaint list was its practicality of storage space. With its bucket two-seater interior, you had room for two average sized people and maybe a duffel bag at best, but this could be said about many sports cars. If you want to take the family on a road trip, take a station wagon…

Well, actually that is not completely true, as a popular addition for the Prowler was the “tow behind”, which was color matching trailer that could be attached to the prowler for grocery shopping, road trips, etc. While not the most convenient alternative, it actually was a nifty looking solution that solved yet another one of the Prowlers downfalls…

There were only 400 Prowlers produced in 1997 and 12,000 total over its five years in existence, which means that they are a bit of a collectors item. But what makes this collectors item truly unique is that fact that you can get one anywhere from $16,000 to $30,000 in brand new condition. Since these are predominantly weekend cars, you’ll rarely find one with much over 30,000 miles, and many of these “babies” are closer to the 5,000 to 15,000 mile range.

While they have their share of flaws in design and conception, these cars are an American classic (even though they’re not V-8’s) and rarely receive a bad review from the actual owners. The critics can slam these cars all they want, but the owners like them, so they must know something that others don’t!

Back in 1971, Dodge introduced their Demon340, which was a pillared two-door fastback. The Demon came in two trims, but the one we are most interested in here was the 340, which featured, you guessed it… a Chrysler 340 small block worth 275 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque at 3200 rpm.

The Demon was set-up nicely with dual exhaust, heavy-duty suspension, stripes, dual scoop hood, rear spoiler, optional hood pins, and devil decals that had religious groups in a tizzy back in the day. You would get all this at the bargain basement price of around $3,000.

If you knock off about 100 horsepower, several hundred pounds (it weighs 2,600 lbs), the pillar roof, smooth out the lines, add about $15 grand to the price tag, and you’ve got yourself the next generation of demon. The new demon comes as one flavor this time, and that’s roadster.

Aiming at the lower-end of the market (obviously, with its remarked base price of $15,000), the new Dodge Demon is once again powered by a formidable Chrysler engine. Albeit not quite the runner that the 340 was, the 2.4 liter still puts out 172 horsepower and 165 lb-ft of torque, which actually if you consider the weight and mated six-speed manual gearbox, you might not actually fair too bad against the original.

The “Roadster with an Attitude”, as Dodge calls it, is also considering plans for a true-to-its-name 300 horsepower turbo version that will be capable of taking-on quite a few of todays performance oriented roadsters, such as the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky Redline, and Audi TT.

What is very cool about this low-end roadster, is that it might actually be made of carbon fiber body panels, which will not only give it nice rigidity on the road, but reduce its weight considerably. To give it modern flare, the Demon features cat-like (black cat of course!) headlamps, a Viper-ish front grille, squared off wheel wells, and functional rear brake ducts.

Yes, and did we mention possibly just over $15,000 for a base model?

It all sounds so great, but as the saying goes, “Anything that sounds too good to be true…”

First of all, the Dodge Demon will probably be closer to the over $20,000 price range once all the dealer costs have been added in, and foremost there in no real “green light” from Dodge that any of this cool talk is going to ever come to fruition.

All we can do for now is sit back for the next year and see if Dodge is going to put-up or shut-up!

It looks like we can look forward to another edition of the John Cooper Works MINI Cooper for 2009. The JCW (John Cooper Works) has been around for several years now, but this year MINI has said that they are in full control of the name badge and intend to use it to its fullest capacity… and indeed it looks like they have done just that…

The new JCW MINI Cooper S and Clubman editions ask the question, what you get when you mix a cuddly koala bear with a feisty Badger? About 207 turbocharged horsepower, 192 lb-ft torque, and less than 3,000 lbs of unsuspecting fury.

While this little beast is rated at 192 lb-ft torque, there is actually about 207 lbs at your disposal thanks to a nifty “overboost” function that can give the driver a quick punch of power when the situation calls for it. Such as when a R32 Volkswagen pulls up next to you at a red light.

Full torque can be reached at just around 1850 rpm, which is quite impressive for a little 1.6 liter powerplant. It is of course widely known that the quickest way to huge horsepower gains with the smallest amount of drag and wear on an engine is turbo, so it is surprising that it took MINI so long to ditch the supercharger and throw on a turbo.

For a brief history of how the 1.6 liter has evolved since the millennium…

The “New” MINI Cooper began its life as a normally aspirated 1.6 liter with 115 horsepower. This was quickly boosted by the Cooper S, which was supercharged to 160 horsepower in 2003. In 2004 the Cooper S was rated at 163 horsepower, then 168 horsepower in 2006, and finally the turbo rolled out in 2007 and unloaded close to 175 ponies onto the pavement.

But for 2009, MINI is using the long known equation in the performance industry…

BIG Turbo = Big Boost = More Horsepower (Approximately 32 more horsepower to be exact)…

Sounds fun??? Don’t you think!