1998 Plymouth Pronto Spyder

The Plymouth Pronto Spyder was a striking roadster concept Chrysler revealed in the mid-1990s, when Plymouth was experimenting with ways to reinvent itself as a fun, youthful, affordable brand. It was one of the last truly bold Plymouth-badged ideas before the division’s end.

The Open-top roadster with minimalist bodywork, Exposed aluminum chassis elements and a simple, functional design language.Rounded styling, in line with Chrysler’s late-1990s “friendly” design experiments (Pronto, Expresso, Back Pack). Lightweight construction: extensive use of plastic body panels over a tubular aluminum frame. The Interior was deliberately simple and playful, almost like a modern dune buggy.

The Plymouth Pronto Spyder was affordable but spirited sports car in the vein of the Mazda MX-5 Miata or Toyota MR2. The Pronto Spyder was intended as Plymouth’s halo sports car — something inexpensive, stylish, and fun to reconnect the brand with younger buyers. It was well received at auto shows, praised for being imaginative, lightweight, and actually buildable compared to many wild concepts. However, Chrysler never greenlit it for production. By the late 1990s, Plymouth’s future was uncertain, and the brand was discontinued in 2001. Some elements of the Pronto Spyder’s thinking (plastic body panels, playful design) influenced later Chrysler experiments, but the car itself remained a one-off.

• Name: Plymouth Pronto Spyder
• Year: 1998 (concept debut)
• Type: 2-seat roadster concept
• Designer: Chrysler Corporation (Plymouth division, under Tom Gale’s design leadership)
• Class: Lightweight sports car
• Engine: 2.4L DOHC inline-4 (shared with Chrysler’s production cars like the Stratus and Neon).
• Output: ~225 hp (turbocharged in the concept).
• Layout: Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive.
• Transmission: 5-speed manual.
• Weight: ~2,700 lbs (light for the era).

(01.03.2000). Chrysler Corporation gave the world a glimpse of Plymouth Pronto Spyder concept car, an exotic, yet affordable European sports car, at the North American International Auto Show today. Tom Tremont, left, chief designer for Pacifica, Chrysler’s West Coast design studio in Carlsbad, Calif., points out features of the mid-engine sports racer that borrows a materials application used to make plastic drinking bottles (polyethylene).