When new, the Dodge Stealth didn't get much respect. Reviewers soured on its size and chided its badge-engineered origins. It got bumped from pacing the Indy 500. After sales tailed off, Dodge figured the far less ambitious Avenger would make for a good replacement for it. And yet, more than a quarter century since the Stealth disappeared from showrooms, somebody at Stellantis decided the name still has enough cachet - for a hybrid SUV, at least.

According to recent reports, Dodge intends to resurrect the Stealth name sometime next year for a Durango replacement that may or may not be based on the WL Grand Cherokee and that most likely will use a hybrid drivetrain. The Durango name, if the reports are to be believed, will then migrate to a larger platform, possibly using the Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer's body-on-frame underpinnings. Which is all to say that a new Stealth will have almost nothing in common with the old Stealth.

Except, that is, for borrowing a good chunk of components from an existing vehicle in the Chrysler extended family. The seeds for what became the Dodge Stealth were sown in 1971 when Chrysler agreed to sell Mitsubishi cars in the U.S. with Chrysler branding, starting with the Dodge Colt, both based on the Mitsubishi Galant. While that partnership eventually culminated in the formation of Diamond-Star Motors, a joint venture that produced the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Plymouth Laser, and Eagle Talon all in the same assembly plant in Normal, Illinois, Chrysler and Mitsubishi also collaborated on some cars outside of that joint venture. The rear-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Starion, for instance, became the captive import Conquest, sold as a Dodge and Plymouth from 1984 to 1986, then as a Chrysler from 1987 to 1989.

When it came time to replace the Starion, Mitsubishi not only changed the name to GTO - a throwback to an earlier Mitsubishi performance car - but also switched to an entirely different platform, that of its Diamante full-size sedan. Doing so would give the GTO access to the full-time all-wheel-drive version of the Diamante as well as the Diamante's transverse-mounted 6G72 V-6 engine. To make the GTO truly stand out as a performance car, however, Mitsubishi gave it a low, rakish 2+2 sports coupe body (with a drag coefficient of 0.33) designed by Masaru Suzuki and loaded the GTO with high-tech features from its 1989 HSR-II concept car, including active aerodynamics, active suspension, and four-wheel steering.

As with the Starion, Mitsubishi and Chrysler partnered to bring the GTO to the U.S. The GTO itself would be renamed the Mitsubishi 3000GT while the captive import version would once again be sold under the Dodge brand as the Stealth. The name likely came from public fascination with a pair of aircraft that used stealth radar-evading technology and which were only recently revealed to the public: the Northrop-Grumman B-2 Spirit, which made its first public flight in 1989, and the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, which first flew in 1981 but wasn't publicly revealed until 1988. To set it apart somewhat from the 3000GT, Dodge designers reshaped the front fascia with a traditional Dodge crosshair grille and added unique taillamps that wrapped up over the decklid from the tail panel.

Source: StellantisSource: Stellantis

The two differed mechanically as well. While the base engine for the 3000GT was a 222hp dual overhead-camshaft (DOHC) 24-valve version of the V-6, the Stealth made do with a single overhead-camshaft 12-valve version for its base engine; only the ES and R/T trim levels of the Stealth got that DOHC version. Both the 3000GT and the Stealth could get the 300hp twin-turbocharged dual-intercooled DOHC version; the former in the VR-4 trim and the latter in the R/T Twin-Turbo trim. In addition, Mitsubishi kept the active aerodynamics exclusive to the 3000GT, though the Stealth could be had with the GTO/3000GT's Active Exhaust System, electronically controlled suspension, and four-wheel steering.

Though some reviewers lambasted the lower trim-level versions of the Stealth for their weight, the twin-turbo version performed admirably, with a sub-five-second zero-to-60 time. In its brochures and press releases, Chrysler positioned the Stealth as a supercar, comparable to several of the world's best sports cars, including the Porsche 911 Carrera 4 and the Lotus Esprit Turbo SE. "Now you can hang with the Ferrari 348 or the Nissan 300 ZX Turbo," one ad claimed.

Chrysler even initially designated the Stealth as the pace car for the 1991 Indianapolis 500, an honor typically reserved for carmakers' most potent production vehicles. In February of that year, however, patriotic fervor raised by the Gulf War (a war in which, perhaps ironically, the F-117 was widely heralded for deploying its stealth technology) led the United Auto Workers to protest the use of a vehicle built overseas - Stealths came from the same Nagoya factory in Japan that produced all Mitsubishi GTOs and 3000GTs - and for Chrysler to accelerate development of the Viper so that it could handle the pace car duties. No Dodge Stealths served as pace cars, though Chrysler did supply three yellow Stealths for the race as if it were supplying them as pace cars, one of which went to race winner Rick Mears, and Dodge did sell pace car editions of the Stealth.

Curiously, according to production numbers put together by Stealth enthusiast Jeff Lucius, the Stealth actually outsold the 3000GT from 1991 to 1993 by nearly half as many cars. Yet with the facelifted second generation in 1994, which replaced the pop-up headlamps with projector-beam units, added an available six-speed manual transmission, and bumped output of the twin-turbocharged engine to 320 horsepower, those roles reversed. Stealth sales declined so precipitously, in fact, that Chrysler axed the sports car after the 1996 model year, when just 360 cars were produced. That decline could also have been a result of the increasing separation between Chrysler and Mitsubishi during that time period; the latter bought out the former's stake in Diamond-Star Motors in 1993 and the two resolved to dissolve the joint venture in 1995, leaving Mitsubishi as just a manufacturing contractor for Chrysler rather than a full-fledged partner.

And business between the two did continue, as evidenced in the Stealth's ostensible replacement, the Dodge Avenger, which Mitsubishi built (alongside the Chrysler Sebring) at the Normal, Illinois, plant starting in 1994. More a replacement for the Laser and Talon with plenty of LH influence, the Avenger two-door coupe nevertheless borrowed some styling from the Stealth, including those wrap-over taillamps.

Source: StellantisSource: Stellantis

In the 27 years since Chrysler discontinued the Stealth, it's merited several retrospectives. Some of those decry how difficult its cramped engine bay is to work in while others laud it for its ahead-of-the-curve technology. It's not hard to find relatively affordable Stealths on the collector car market these days, either, indicating there's some interest in the car as a collectible. But as the trend of appropriating "heritage" nameplates for new SUVs and CUVs continues - think of Mitsubishi's use of the Eclipse name, Dodge's use of the Hornet and GLH names, BMW's maximizing of the Mini, and even the more recent news regarding Nissan's Skyline - whether the potential for increased recognition and nostalgia for the Stealth will come to pass with a new Stealth SUV is anybody's guess.


Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Hemmings Motor News.