Look what I shot at a local cruise recently...

1983 PPG Daytona Turbo Z Pace Car, one of one. This was built before there were any production Daytonas--none of the body panels match the production models. It has no headlights, no turn signals and no license-plate well. And, boy, it is loud.
The owner also has '89 Shelby CSX-VNT #1 of 500, from the Carroll Shelby collection.

Pretty cool

That is cool!

I remember years ago driving home from a vacation and seeing a small car show in a mall parking lot. I stopped to have a look. I was shocked to see the M4S Turbo Interceptor from the movie The Wraith. Not sure how many of those were made or if they ever made a kit car of it but it was certainly cool to see in person.

Mopar really missed the mark by not putting out a RWD 318 and 360 powered coupe back then. Most here know how bad it was back then being a mopar guy. Iroc Z's and 5.0's

I had an 87 Charger that was converted to a 360 and used an A-Body 8-3/4. Only drove it a couple of times but it was a handful...

Well, they DID sell an awful lot of them as FWD "Sports" cars. Back then, "Technology" and "Front wheel drive" were huge buzz words and made the Mustang and Camaro look like horse & buggy in comparison.
Mustang and Camaro were still running carburetors whilst the Daytona/Laser had Turbochargers and Throttle Body injection, and then later Multi Port Injection.

But I hear what you're saying. It would've been kind of neat had Mopar even dusted off the old 273 to offer a nice, small V8 with TBI or even the 3.9 V6 and offer RWD. I guess if we'd had known then that the trend was going to reverse itself. Don't forget that Ford came out with the Probe as a Mustang replacement and Camaro was going to be replaced by the Beretta. It was only at the 11th-hour that the decision to "keep the dinosaurs around" for a few more years was made.

But a Daytona with an all-aluminum small block with Multi-Port Injection and a 5 speed trans with RWD does sound mighty tasty....

i had a 1985 Laser [daytona except the name] that had just the base 2.2 engine.
it was a fun little car, and it would give the mustangs and cameros a good run.......for the first 300ft or so.

Terrific photo! I attended plenty of CART races during that era and PPG had a fleet of specialty cars at those events

My ‘81 Mirada had a 318 in it, and it was a RWD coupe ? It was a dog tho.

Revisionist history? The Mustang SVO featured a Turbocharged and Injected 2.3 making 175 HP in 1984, the same year the Daytona was launched. Even the 3rd Gen Camaro had TBI as an option when it came out in 1982.

I had a 84 Laser turbo. It was a fun little car. Would burn the tires very well.

Chrysler also had the Conquest from 83-89 that was sold under Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth names up through 87 then it was all Chrysler. I am sure it was over priced to compete with the mustang, it had 177-188HP and they are kind of heavy for the size. They are actually very well built but the motor is just kind of a polished forklift engine with a turbo.

I have one I brought from the dead last year, I get asked a lot of questions about it because nobody knows what it is. If I go to a cars and coffee or drive in car show it gets as much if not more attention than my 10 second 68 Barracuda.