I Was Unreasonably Excited by Old Mopars at Radwood Philly

Over the weekend, I attended my first Radwood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’d been excited for this super-rad 80s- and 90s-themed car show for several years – the show was initially planned for March 2020 and uh… we know how that went. In any case, I cut the legs off of an old pair of light-wash jeans, grabbed a hot pink pair of Pit Viper sunglasses, and pointed a very blue Audi liftback toward Philadelphia.

Radwood Philly Audi S5 Sportback

Radwood bills itself “a celebration of ’80s and ’90s lifestyle, blending period correct dress with automotive awesomeness.” And despite many people my age having had posters of Dodge Vipers and Lamborghini Countachs on their bedroom walls, our 1980s and 1990s lifestyles included a lot of cars that my friend Rick simply refers to as “traffic.”

It sounds callous, but he has a point. People saved the cool cars that were around back then – it’s the natural thing to do. But who preserves an Isuzu Amigo or an Oldsmobile Achieva?

Radwood Philly Isuzu Amigo

I didn’t grow up as a “Mopar kid” – I came home from the hospital in a Nissan Stanza and spent my early years in a 1987 Nissan Sentra and 1994 Ford Taurus. Our extended family collectively drove a mix of brands and the only Chrysler products I remember were my grandfather’s two Town & Country minivans.

Despite that, 1980s and 1990s Mopar has this odd grip on me. Maybe it’s because they bet the entire farm on the K-Car, made it work, and then made an absolutely bonkers product portfolio out of K-platform variants. Maybe it’s because they were doing some technically advanced stuff throughout those years. I respect the hell out of the Electronic Voice Alert and the Plymouth Prowler, even though the whole internet says it’s cool to hate on both.

Chrysler-and-co was on a roll for a long time, until the “merger of equals” came about with Daimler. I have no real proof of my own to back the thoughts, but I suppose I see that era of Chrysler as equal parts scrappy and advanced. They were building what (it seems) people wanted to buy. And thus, my focus went right past the purple Countach and countless, beautiful BMWs and Porsches to the… 1981 Plymouth Reliant in pea-soup green.

Radwood Philly Plymouth Reliant K Dodge Neon

The Reliant was parked next to an early four-door Dodge Neon (Hi.). Elsewhere, there was a brown-with-DiNoc-wood Aries station wagon that captured my attention.

Radwood Philly Dodge Aries wagon

Mopars everywhere! A blue Chrysler LHS stood in for the family of LH cars, which included Jack and Garrett’s Eagle Vision ESi of Trackcross 2021 fame.

Radwood Philly Chrysler LHS

Yes, there were rows of E28 and E34 BMWs with Volvos, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys mixed in, and I took a photo of a Plymouth Acclaim.

Radwood Philly Plymouth Acclaim

No show would be complete without a Turbovan – a Dodge Caravan with factory turbocharged engine and five-speed manual. Extra points for color-matched alloy wheels!

Radwood Philly Dodge Caravan turbo

Topping it all, a group of us had a little after-party following the show and I got to pilot Corey’s 1983 Dodge 600 convertible around the neighborhood. Its carbureted 2.6 liter Mitsubishi four and three-speed automatic powered so many K-cars that moved so many families around. The 600 convertible existed thanks to Lee Iacocca asking engineers to cut the roof off of an Aries two-door to see how it’d look.

None of these Mopars were especially enthusiast-oriented when new. Not even the turbo Caravan. They were all, indeed, just traffic. And that’s what makes seeing them at a show like Radwood so special.

Radwood Philly Dodge 600 convertible

3 thoughts on “I Was Unreasonably Excited by Old Mopars at Radwood Philly”

  1. Part of the bailout deal with Chrysler was the government buying those K Car era Dodges. As I entered the Air Force, the base commanders car was almost always a 4 Door Aries, blue with a white roof. You saw it coming and made sure you saluted it. The Acclaim was the replacement and I recall as a LT getting “Threat briefings” of the Plymouth Acclaim of the Tinker AFB commander. he was annoyed he wasn’t getting enough salutes. Maybe he should have been rocking that 5 speed turbo minivan. No one would miss that.

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  2. We didn’t know that your group existed until today when I was contacted by a fellow AACA museum member, that you were there to visit. We have, 1960 Studebaker Hawk, 1062 Valiant signet htp,
    1977 Dodge Diplomat Medallion 2dr. and 1984 Dodge 600 conv. + every day driver, We are also members of Valley Forge region AACA. When is your next Philadelphia area meeting?
    Richard & Gus, 111rodeo@gmail.com 610-513-4754

    Reply
    • Hey Richard! We don’t have our 2023 events planned yet but are working on a schedule now. Everything will be posted to our Events page here (https://outmotorsports.com/events) and on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Happy to add your email address to our mailing list as well so you don’t miss out!

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