Comments on: Charade 926R: When Daihatsu Met DeTomaso http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/blog/2007/12/17/charade-926r-when-daihatsu-met-detomaso/ The official blog of Japanese Nostalgic Car magazine Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:48:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: J-Spec http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/blog/2007/12/17/charade-926r-when-daihatsu-met-detomaso/comment-page-1/#comment-6034 J-Spec Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:53:47 +0000 http://grandjdm.com/2007/12/17/charade-926r-when-daihatsu-met-detomaso/#comment-6034 Many years ago before my motoring tastes were adequately honed I actually test drove a Charade DeTomaso with the intention of buying one for my brother (this was the mid 90's rounder G201S shape). The dealer handed over the keys for my brother and I to take it for a spin unaccompanied which I thought was pretty trusting at the time, but in retrospect I left him something with 4 times the power so I guess he wouldn't have lost too much out of the deal had we done a runner. Anyway, we trundled off and I thought that this 1.3L non turbo would somehow be supernaturally fast... I mean it was a <i>DeTomaso</i>, no one who made the PANTERA could make anything other than a vehicle forged by the devil himself, right? Maybe it was the 200kg worth of twin 6 foot passengers or maybe it was the blindingly obvious fact that 1.3L NA in a moderately light car just doesn't work out mathematically for huge fun, but the car was a disappointment. A disappointment to my bother who was used to a 4 cylinder Mitsubishi Magna, so you can understand just how lack luster it was. In a last ditch attempt to get some enjoyment out of the car at a set of lights my brother suggested I do a bit of a hard launch to see just what it could do. The clutch dropped and the revs leaped enthusastically to the right of the tacho and at last I thought we'd extracted some excitement out of the car. This was short lived, as the smell of burning clutch quickly permeated it's way through the air vents. Now for anyone who's ever burnt a clutch to a decent degree you'll know that a) it's a damn strong smell, and b) it takes forever to go away. The combination of these two is not so great when you then have to give the car back to the owner! We drove around for about a half an hour before it finally went away and we could finally hand the keys back innocently and get out of there. Ultimately, while the DeTomaso name can still only be said in reverence after their efforts in the 70's, the DeTomaso Charade was sadly a bit of a fizzer. Ben Many years ago before my motoring tastes were adequately honed I actually test drove a Charade DeTomaso with the intention of buying one for my brother (this was the mid 90’s rounder G201S shape). The dealer handed over the keys for my brother and I to take it for a spin unaccompanied which I thought was pretty trusting at the time, but in retrospect I left him something with 4 times the power so I guess he wouldn’t have lost too much out of the deal had we done a runner.

Anyway, we trundled off and I thought that this 1.3L non turbo would somehow be supernaturally fast… I mean it was a DeTomaso, no one who made the PANTERA could make anything other than a vehicle forged by the devil himself, right? Maybe it was the 200kg worth of twin 6 foot passengers or maybe it was the blindingly obvious fact that 1.3L NA in a moderately light car just doesn’t work out mathematically for huge fun, but the car was a disappointment. A disappointment to my bother who was used to a 4 cylinder Mitsubishi Magna, so you can understand just how lack luster it was.

In a last ditch attempt to get some enjoyment out of the car at a set of lights my brother suggested I do a bit of a hard launch to see just what it could do. The clutch dropped and the revs leaped enthusastically to the right of the tacho and at last I thought we’d extracted some excitement out of the car. This was short lived, as the smell of burning clutch quickly permeated it’s way through the air vents. Now for anyone who’s ever burnt a clutch to a decent degree you’ll know that a) it’s a damn strong smell, and b) it takes forever to go away. The combination of these two is not so great when you then have to give the car back to the owner! We drove around for about a half an hour before it finally went away and we could finally hand the keys back innocently and get out of there.

Ultimately, while the DeTomaso name can still only be said in reverence after their efforts in the 70’s, the DeTomaso Charade was sadly a bit of a fizzer.

Ben

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