There really was never a lot to get excited about when it came to the Plymouth Sundance, so if you see one staging next to you at the drag strip, you might want to worry. In this case, 1320video spotted an example of Chrysler’s long-forgotten compact that had been transformed from an economy car into an 11-second super sleeper.
Aside from its seemingly flawless condition, there’s nothing that really indicates what sort of a beast this particular Sundance really is. Fortunately, the video was managed to catch this car in action on the strip and on the dyno, and he later catches up with the car’s owner to get the full details behind this car.
While the body of this Plymouth Sundance looks the same as it did 27 years ago, the rest of the car has been highly modified to take on the quarter mile. The biggest change came to the driveline where the front-drive layout was switched to rear drive using the transmission of a Toyota Supra (which required a Dodge Dakota bell housing) and a nine-inch Ford rear end.
As for the engine, it uses the same four-cylinder block that the Sundance used from the factory, but this racer upgraded to a Dodge Neon cylinder head, cam gears from a Geo Metro and a massive turbocharger from a Dodge pickup (presumably a heavy-duty Cummins). On the dyno, this engine laid down 559 hp and 478 lb-ft of torque. The big question here, of course, is how he figured out what upgrades to make to his FrankenSundance? That’s easy. Lots of research on the Internet and plenty of trips to the junkyard!
On the track, lays down numbers nobody would expect from the car including an 11.006 that beat a Ford Mustang in a heads-up race. As good as that is, the owner said that his best time for this car is a 10.6. And it looks like it could still be a functional and entertaining daily driver to boot.
You’re definitely going to want to check out this Plymouth Sundance sleeper in action in the video below.
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