August 27, 1980 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 23579 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS CHRYSLER AND AUTO Planners had little idea one design would like a laser beam through Detroit's darkest TECHNOLOGY be so crucial when they first set pen to hour. This is another of those genuinely paper four years ago. The Omni/Horizon small cars packed with an astonishingly line was almost ready for introduction at roomy interior. SAE measurements <used by HON. DOUG WALGREN that time. Americans had just resumed the EPA to categorize cars> spot the K-car OF PENNSYLVANIA their big-car buying habits after Energy just slightly smaller than an X-car in front, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Crisis I, encouraged by plentiful-albeit but a bit larger in both back-seat and truck more expensive-fuel supplies. The K would roominess. Outside, the K rides on a five­ Wednesday, August 27, 1980 replace the Aspen/Volare, and, for the first inch-shorter wheelbase than the X-car, is six e Mr. WALGREN. Mr. Speaker, time ever, Chrysler planners knew exactly inches shorter overall, and is just a touch American auto technology is in a cru­ what they wanted. The "blueprint" letter wider. Inside, Chrysler supplies seatbelts for cial state of transition. For a number that set development in motion was seven five or six people <depending on whether of inescapable reasons we must change pages long, whereas single-sheet descrip­ the front seats are buckets or a bench), and tions had typically launched new Chrysler the EPA has anointed this a "midsize" car the size and design of new automobiles products in the past. <but just barely). After our preview rides at in order to deal with our energy short­ What they wanted was a downsized Chrysler's Chelsea proving grounds, we can age in an effective manner. Simply Aspen/Volare with every bit of fresh tech­ add that a Reliant or Aries will carry four stated: "Necessity is the mother of in­ nology Chrysler could afford. This wish quite comfortably, with room for one or two vention." Such is the case for both the jelled into a plan that has become the only more in a pinch. The trunk is a useful fif­ United States and the Chrysler Corp. accepted way to build a new sedan: a trans­ teen cubic feet because the spare tire lies I would like to draw the attention of verse front-wheel-drive powertrain; space-ef­ flat and the fuel tank is tucked forward, ficient, people-oriented bodyWork; and under the rear seat. my colleagues to an article that re­ maximum mpg through state-of-the-art cently appeared in Car & Driver maga­ The big-inside/little-outside trick was emissions controls, small-displacement four­ pulled off the usual way. Up front, there's a zine that describes the new Chrysler K cylinder engines, lightweight engineering, new 2.2-liter engine specifically designed for car. I commend this article for reading and wind-tunnel aerodynamic tuning. sidewinder duty. For Chrysler's first new because it shows the creativity our Four years is a long gestation period, and powerplant in twenty years, the design Nation needs for future automotive as the world turned topsy outside Chrysler's seems a bit archaic: long of stroke, lacking a technology. engineering center, product planners were crossflow cylinder head, and stuck with a so­ tempted to bend the K-car blueprint here called "bath-tub, double-quench" combus­ PI. YMOUTH RELIANT SE and there. The success of Malibous, Fair­ <By Don Sherman) tion chamber. The good stuff does include moots, and later, X-cars suggested that per­ an aluminum cylinder head <cast by Fiat>. a Will Chrysler survive? The whole coun­ haps a 99.6-inch wheelbase was too small; belt-driven overhead camshaft jewel-like hy­ try's been wondering, from Stasz's Bar and one faction was anxious for a stretch while draulic valve-lash adjusters, and a sophisti­ Grill in Hamtramck to the hallowed halls of there was still time. Likewise, V-6 engines cated feedback carburetor wired to a three­ Congress. Over the last six months, specula­ became all the rage, and several planners way catalytic-converter emissions-control tion has run rampant across the nation's wondered if the K-car's four-cylinder-only system. Weigh the good and the bad as you newspaper headlines, with precious few af­ design might miss the ever oscillating firmative answers. Lee A. Iacocca, Chrysler's market target. like, but every aspect of the design is at chairman of the board and also the man The Ford gang as it turned out kept the least justifiable. The long stroke produces who pulled off the most complex financial K-car true to original concept. Harold K. the necessary displacement within a short closing in history, insists the foundering Sperlich, Chrysler's new executive vice­ overall engine length, a very important con­ giant must not be allowed to go down. Uncle president of engineering and product devel­ sideration in transverse layouts. The non­ Sam, through the federal loan-guarantee opment in 1977, squeezed off one of those crossflow design locates both intake and ex­ board, has reluctantly and half-heartedly fabled hip shots in the face of conflicting haust systems to the back, where they pack­ agreed. market research. What he did was freeze age neatly over the transaxle <a la VW American car consumers don't seem to the K-car small, as you see it here. It's his­ Rabbit). The early engines we tested were care one way or another. The lucky few tory now, but the ayatollah proved Mr. spunky for the job: reasonably smooth, com­ with cash or credit for a new automobile are Sperlich both right and prescient. By the petitive if not all-conquering in acceleration, buying Japanese at unprecedented rates. time Iacocca came on board in 1979 <fol­ and suprisingly thrifty with fuel if early The rest are having enough trouble just lowed by another platoon of FoMoCo EPA predictions are accurate. <See the per­ keeping the rent paid and gas in the old bus talent>. the K was pretty much locked in formance printout and specifications that for the daily work commute. If there's one place, needing only Washington-guaranteed follow. We've held off bar graphs until we thing that could possibly shake buyers out cash to finance its way through develop­ have production K-cars to compare with the of the doldrums and put Chrysler back into ment and into the marketplace. competition.> the black, it's brand, spanking new hard­ World events as much as anything else A Mitsubishi-made 2.6 Silent Shaft four­ ware. After all the rhetoric, the begging, made the K-car exactly what consumers and cylinder is the optional engine. It's available pleading, and doomsday prognostications, the Chrysler Corporation alike need right only with Chrysler's three-speed automatic any company lives or dies on the products it now. Preliminary fuel economy ratings run transmission at the moment, so the combi­ sells. In Chrysler's case, unsold New from 23 to 26 mpg. The four-cylinder is the nation is only a mite speedier than the four­ Yorkers, Cordovas, Ramchargers, and engine of the times, as even V-6s are start­ speed 2.2 powertrain. The bigger engine is Aspens have been bleeding the very life­ ing to seem "too big."And just as America smoother and quieter, and both four- and blood from the corporation every day. Now, feels ready and eager to get back to basic five-speed boxes are under development for not a moment too soon, there's a chance for transportation, the K-car arrives as a very it. Right now, the little engine's four-speed a vital transfusion, the K-car. bread-and-butter sedan: no opera windows shift linkage is what we'd call non-contro­ "K" is engineering lingo for the car that <or lights), no boudoir decor packages, no versial: more direct-acting than an X-car's, will become the Plymouth Reliant and the Continental kits, no two-tone paint jobs, not quite as positive as the new Ford Es­ Dodge Aries the instant it touches down on and not even a hatchback to confuse the cort's. showroom floors in three body styles­ issue. The real surprise here is not under the notchback two- and four-door sedans and a These are strictly mainstream, middle-of­ hood, but rather under the fenders. The five-door wagon. Not only is the K-car the the-market machines, so don't look for a Re­ suspension hardware is similar to the Omni/ most "previewed" automobile in history-ac­ liant RS or an Aries Rising just yet. Sup­ Horizon's <some pieces are interchangeable), curate photographs were dispensed months posedly such iterations are on the drawing but the tuning came off like no Chrysler in ago to the press, and every congressman was board-along with two-seaters, mini-trucks, the history of mankind. This one works. offered a prototype· to test-drive-it also and larger sedans using K-car components­ The damping is-dare we say-right up to bears the weightiest responsibility of any but for now, the three basic body styles European levels of firmness and rock-and­ product since the dawn of free enterprise. have been charged with the responsibility roll control. Understeer is well in check, and This car is the today and tomorrow of for 43 percent of Chrysler's 1981 business. we measured a respectable 0. 71 skidpad g on Chrysler, the very essence of the seven­ No small feat.