The Searcher
Sr Member
Ah yes, the Island twin-turbo. It was originally designed to give the aging Alpine A310 another boost in its lifecycle, and promising results prompted them to test it out with the DMC-12. During initial testing with a prototype equipped with the Island, the DMC ended up being quicker than the Ferrari 308 and the Porsche 928 of the time with a 0-100 Kmh (0-60 Mph) time of just 5.8 seconds, completing the quarter mile in under 15 seconds. This impressed John Z. so much, he ordered 5,000 of the Twin turbo engines to be put in the 1984 DMCs as a $7500 option (possibly to compete with the new Corvette). As we all know however, DMC went under, and without any funds to compensate for the orders, Island also went under. Thankfully, both of the the Twin-Turbo examples remain roadworthy, and they still haul for 80s sports cars. Still, kudos to the guy with the HEMI swap, that sounds insane! Finally, I’d like to say that the similarities between the Lotus Esprit and the DMC are more than just a coincidence, as both were designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the founder of Italdesign. His company recently designed a super-expensive version of the Nissan GT-R.I get the feeling they would/could have addressed the car's shortcomings in an updated model, but we'll never know.
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