Hello Everyone! Welcome to my page dedicated to my 1992 Dodge Spirit R/T!
Here is the story... I was wanting/needing a car that got decent gas mileage...better than my Cherokee... so a four banger was needed. I used to have a 1996 Saturn SW2 with a 5 speed but I felt it was a little too slow for my taste. I then looked around for a 4 banger with a turbo... preferably one that came from the factory with one. I went to the internet to search for 4 cylinder turbo cars from the late 80's to the early 90's. At first i found the Eagle Talons, Mitsubishi Eclipses, and Plymouth Lazers. I searched the local paper and found a few and went to take a look. What was found was horrible, everyone that I looked at was in terrible shape.
There had to be another vehicle out there that fit my needs. I searched the internet a little more and I found the Stealths but they were too expensive and had a V6. Then I started to think if they made any 4 cylinder turbo sedans.
I could not believe it! they actually made turbo sedans in the early 90's! Mitsubishi had the VR4 and Dodge had the Spirit R/T... I investigated the VR4 but its styling was a little too 80's import for my taste... and i discovered that it had 4 wheel steering and all wheel drive... believe me those are some great qualities...but for a car that is nearly 20 years old and where they only made between 2000 and 5000 of them...those extra parts are likely to break... and with being an import... parts could be hard to find and expensive... so i "x"ed that idea....
Then i took a look at the Spirit.... i was amazed at what it had to offer... 4 doors, front wheel drive for the snow, and a 4 cylinder turbo... this might be the car that i was searchin' for! I started reading about it and found out that it did have its trouble spots (head gasket, timing belt, etc.) but what 4 cylinder car from the early 90's didn't? Another benifit of the Spirit is that it flies underneath police radar... especially if I found a white one!
The search was on for a Spirit R/T... i searched trader, no luck, then i searched ebay and found one in Houston, TX with 164k miles....I was the highest bidder but the reserve was not met... and the seller did not want to go down to my price... so the search was on again....I then stumbled on to TurboDodge.com... and found a 1992 in WA... it even had lower miles than the one i had previously found...it had 88k miles when I found it...and it was only $200 more than the one I had found in Houston...I contacted the owner, a deal was struck and I went to pick it up in WA in late July 2008. I decided to make a little mini vacation out of the deal so I took my sweet time bringing the car to CO.
This was taken at a rest stop in Idaho.
Look at that 89,894 original miles!
On the trip home I had been driving for a few hours and decided that I needed to pull over for a little break...I could not believe what i found at this exit in Montana!! This was at a Sinclair gas station. Who would put multicolored palm trees at a gas station in the middle of BFE Montana?? This gas station is not located near a major city in Montana...it is in the middle of nowhere....in a town with a population of maybe 5k..
Even though I was askin' myself why...I still thought that the palm trees were awesome....
I was lookin' at the map and i was noticing how close I was to Yellowstone and decided to make a stop there. It was an amazing experiance. It added a few hours to the trip home but it was well worth it.
While I was in the park I hit 90,000 miles...
More pics of Yellowstone...
And finally an amazing Wyoming sunset....
The car that I purchased definently needs some work....I'm hopin' to get to it in the very near future so I can have a really nice example of a 1992 Dodge Spirit R/T. Being that there were only 191 made in 1992... I probably have the only one in Colorado!.... I will let ya'll know my progress
UPDATE: It is now February and I have owned the car 7 months and now has 95,000 miles. 3 of those months I have had to do at least $500.00 of repairs to the car. In November, majority of the seals went out on the motor. The crank seal, cam seals, turbo return line, timing belt, and valve cover gaskets went out. In January, all of the tires needed to be replaced as they were 9 years old and leaked air everytime the temp changed. I went from Goodyears to Pirellis. February came and it now wants new injectors and an AIS motor. Hopefully these will be the last repairs for awhile.
I also discovered that there are other Spirits in CO. So far I have found 3 others. A 91 and two 92's, all being red in color. Maybe I have the only white 92 in the state. :)
