More cool cars that were nixed before they made production...

Here's some more cool rides the manufacturers thought about, and then never built. Too bad, they'd have been fun. # 1. 1971 Charger Daytona / Plymouth Superbird. Chrysler considered offering the slope-nose and big rear wing on the redesigned '71 Charger and Road Runner. However-like I said in the last post-Ford cut way back on their racing programs, and Chrysler knew with ever-tightening emissions laws that the Hemi's days were numbered and that they wouldn't be seriously competing in NASCAR-Richard Petty and other big names would get some back-door stuff-but their wouldn't be officially factory backed teams. Ultimately they decided it wasn't worth the effort to produce a limited run of cars with special bodywork, especially if they didn't have to sell a certain number to homologate them for racing. Too bad they would have been cool. # 2. 1971 Challenger T/A / 'Cuda AAR. This package and the 340 Six-Pack engine was listed in early '71 sales literature, and I even saw advertisements for the Challenger T/A in Car Life and Motor Trend. However the "ad car" was a '70 model with the '71 grille airbrushed in. For whatever reason-emission standards, or Chrysler pulling out of Trans-Am racing, the car's never made production, leaving 1970 the only model year. Too bad-if Chrysler hadn't given up on the E-bodies-they might have made a huge comeback in the later '70's like the Camaro and Firebird did. The 340 Six-Pack would have fell by the wayside because of smog laws-but the 400 and 440 V8s were available in the big cars through '78. Think a 440, 4-speed, Challenger T/A could have competed with the Trans-Am and Z/28?  Does a bear crap in the woods?  # 3. 1971-73 429 Mercury Cougar. Since you could get a 454 in a Monte Carlo and a 455 in a Pontiac Gran Prix-GM's top-selling "Personal Luxury / Performance" coupes-Ford engineers thought it might be a good idea to offer the 429 in the Cougar. The bean counters nixed the idea-saying that the Thunderbird was the competitior for the Monte Carlo and the GP, not the Cougar. The largest engine available in the Cougar was a 351C.  Huh? We all know that in a drag race or the twisties all a big, heavy Lincoln MKIV based T-Bird-429 / 460 power aside-would see of the much lighter 454 and 455 GM A-bodies ( Chevelle / LeMans based ) would be the taillights!!  Ford engineers knew this-and a 429 Cougar would have been awesome. But it wasn't allowed. Cougars did get a 460 in 1974-but this was after the sister Mustang was downsized to a gussied-up Pinto / Capri-and the Cougar was now based on the much heavier and uglier Lincoln MKIV platform. Even a pre-"Charlies Angels" Farrah-Fawcett-Majors advertising them barefoot in a bikini couldn't sell them. # 4. 1974 Pontiac GTO. Initially-the '74 GTO was going to still be LeMans based-and offered with the SD-455 that had made such a splash with the buff magazines in the Trans-Am in '73. Pontiac hoped this would re-energize sales. Then the engineers got the idea to put the name on the X-body platform ( read Nova ) Ventura. They even discussed putting the L78 400 that was standard in the Trans-Am into the Ventura based GTO ( Pontiac engines are externally identical and the 350 V8 was already available in the Ventura; so it would have been a bolt-in. )  and since the X-bodys shared underpinnings with the F-body Camaro / Firebird they could have put a T/A style suspension on it and revived the "Judge" nameplate as a special performance package. However the bean counters nixed that. The T/A was now the flagship-and even with an SD-455 under the hood-the 3,800 lb T/A would have got it's lunch eaten by a 400 powered, 3,200 lb Ventura. So instead the Ventura / GTO got a T/A style shaker hood and a 7.6:1 350 V8 that wheezed out 200 hp. And they wondered why they didn't sell. The 400 / Judge idea would have been great. I know-I put the 400 out of my wrecked '77 T/A into a '71 Ventura and it was really quick. With disc brakes and a WS6 suspension-the proposed factory version would have been totally badass. But I guess-like the LS6 Nova-GM couldn't have anything that cool out there. # 5. 1987 Fiero GT Turbo. Even with the 140 hp 2.8 liter V6-the light, mid-engine ( 2,600 lbs ) Fiero scooted pretty good. Pontiac engineers discussed putting a Turbo on it. GM had the technology-the blisteringly fast Buick Grand Nationals proved that. They even discussed putting the GN powerplant in the Fiero. 3.8 Buick V6s are not that much larger than the Chevy 2.8s. It was feasible. Once again-Chevrolet brass threw a tantrum. A Turbo Fiero would hurt Corvette sales. Pontiac engineers fought hard. Ok-scrap the Grand National engine swap-that probably would have been too much work anyway-we were just bench racing. But turbocharging the 2.8 that was already in the car would be easy, and that would make the Fiero a competitior of the Mazda RX-7, the Nissan 300ZX ,the Toyota Supra and the Porsche 944, not the Corvette. Were RX-7s cutting into 'Vette sales?  Would the upcoming Mazda Miata hurt 'Vette sales? Chevrolet brass wouldn't back down an inch, and like always-the other divisions toed the line and the project was nixed. Too bad. It would have been a fun little car. I know a guy who put the Supercharged 3.8 out of his wifes wrecked Bonneville SSEI into a Fiero. It will literally spin the tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle, and run off from just about anything but a Hellcat Charger or a Z06 'Vette. Now we know what the GN engined version would have done!  Thankfully-the big 3 seemed to have learned. Chrysler is ballsy enough to release the Hellcat and the Demon, GM has the Z06 'Vette and ZL1 Camaro, and Ford has the GT350 Mustang. Too bad they didn't learn 30 or 40 years ago. Mastermind