History originally published in Sport Compact Car May 1998

Whnile most “sporty cars” of the ’70s were tape stripes and wheels, the Plymouth Fire Arrow brought a bigger engine to the party.

The Plymouth Fire Arrow got pride of place on the 1979 Plymouth Arrow brochure.

The 1979 Plymouth Fire Arrow was heavily on decals but had a big motor to go with it.

If you’ve got it flaunt it. The Plymouth Fire Arrow’s “2.6” was the engine size in liters.

 

The 1970s were difficult, bringing us not only John Travolta and disco but also diminishing expectations in automobiles. Every fall brought anxiety. Do I buy this year’s model before they’re all gone, or wait and buy next year’s model which will more than likely be worse. By 1990, the crepe hangers said, we’d all be riding bicycles because the oil would be gone.

But whast a surprise and delight when Plymouth trotted out the Fire Arrow in 1979. The Arrow, a front engine, rear-drive subcompact built by Mitsubishi, had been sold by Plymouth dealers since 1976, replacing the ill-fated Cricket of 1971-73. The Arrow was a traditional Japanese two-door coupe, narrow and somewhat cramped inside. The fastback roofline with its limited backseat headroom and legroom was confining for anyone with feet bigger than GI Joe’s. At least the rear hatch and folding rear seat back lent some utility to the aft half of the interior. A 1957cc four was available with a four-speed manual transmission; an optional two-liter version of the engine came with a five-speed manual or three-speed automatic.

In 1978, Plymouth marketing types invented the Arrow GT the same way most GTs were made at the time, with white letter tires and alloy wheels, tape stripes, a sport steering wheel and gauge package, with a GT badge. The new MCA-Jet engine, with a second, much smaller intake valve admitted air only (not an air/fuel mix), increased turbulence and mileage while reducing emissions. Twin balance shafts (then revolutionary) cured the shakes. Can you stand the excitement?

Oh, you wanted excitement! Well, how about stroking and boring the 1.6-liter block to 2.6 liters – actually the same engine as in the Plymouth Sapporo and contemporary Dodge Challenger. Instead of the 77 bhp of the standard 1.6-liter engine, the 2.6 with a single overhead cam and two-barrel Mikuni carburetor was rated at 105 bhp and, more importantly, 139 lb-ft of torque. Of course, there was no problem putting the bigger engine in because it was the same size on the outside and didn’t weigh any more. With that much more grunt, the Arrow would certainly be hotter, so what else to call it but Fire Arrow – a situation somewhat akin to naming your son Junior.

The Fire Arrow was more than a bigger engine, however. If it was to go faster, it needed better brakes, so the Fire Arrow got discs all around instead of the usual disc/drum setup. They were adequate for the 2,400-pound car and fade free despite an absence of venting.

But it wasn’t stopping the car that made magazine editors breathe heavily. It was a car that “vaulted the quarter-mile,” per Car and Driver, and 17.8 seconds at 78 mph and did 0-60 mph and 10.1 seconds. Road & Track recorded a quicker 0-60, at 9.6 seconds, faster than the 10.4 of the Mustang Turbo 2.3 or the VW Scirocco. But that wasn’t the whole story. “The car moves,” said Car and Driver, which reveled in its instant response and noted in the government’s 50-80 mph pass test (hey, wasn’t the speed limit 55 mph?) the Fire Arrow was the fastest missile in the Chrysler quiver, eclipsing even the 360 cid V8 Chrysler 300. With patience, the Fire Arrow topped out at 108 mph.

Suspension under the Fire Arrow was McPherson struts front and a live axle on leaf springs at the rear, and Road & Track called it “stiff, leading to a good deal of jouncing and bouncing on bumpy roads.” Understeer, from moderate to strong, was the handling modus, though “pushing on hard enough can also bring a feeling that the surprisingly quick, stiff and light machine might even be second cousin to an honest road racer.” But not too much throttle in low-speed turns, please, or the rear end hops. A good part of the handling was due to the BFGoodrich 185/70HR-13 tires, though these were probably too much tire for the good-looking but narrow 13 x 5 alloy wheels. Lateral acceleration: 0.704g.

No matter what else you drove, there was no missing the Fire Arrow, with its striped sides and full-hood flaming arrow decal, at first available only in black on white but in added colors later.

The Fire Arrow was introduced late in the model year run. In the same year, Plymouth added the Mitsubishi-sourced front-drive subcompact Scamp, and though Road & Track and Car and Driver prognosticated that the Fire Arrow marked the future of performance cars in a world of shrinking oil supplies, it was more a relic of the past. The Arrows’s flight ended after the 1980 model year. Now, gas is relatively cheaper and mastadons like the Mustang and Camaro have survived, while subcompact performance moved mostly in front-wheel-drive.

The Plymouth Arrow replaced the Rootes-built Pymouth Cricket as Chrysler’s Pinto/Vega fighter for the Plymouth brand

While most of the literature has the 2.6-liter being available only in the Fire Arrow, there are reports by former owners who bought the Arrow GT in 1978, equipped with the 2.6.  

A very period 1979 television ad for the Plymouth Fire Arrow..

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