The American hypercar that never came

Chrysler must have been worried when the great Stellantis fleet left. Fiat and Chrysler joined the Peugeot club to create a super tank of cars (they’ll all be electric, but those things can’t be swayed from their path).

It’s easy to overlook the fact that Chrysler had done this before, when it formed a supergroup with Mercedes in 1998 that was meant to break existing systems and develop all sorts of cool synergies. It didn’t go very well. The highlight was probably the Chrysler ME Fourteen-Twelve concept car that debuted at the 2004 Detroit Auto Show.

What does ME Four-Twelve mean?

The name was a strange code that they could make fun of during the Cold War. It stood for Mid Engine, four turbos and twelve cylinders. It may have gone into production under the name Chrysler HIAMO – It’s All Mercedes Under the Skin.

It had an aluminum 6.0-liter V12 from Mercedes that was ready to be used in luxury wars with the original Pagani Zonda. Four turbos pushed power to 850 hp and torque to 1,150 Nm, which, shockingly, all went to the rear wheels via a seven-speed automatic transmission. If it had actually gone into production nineteen years ago, it would have been the most powerful production car – and the fastest in the world by at least five minutes.

It certainly looked like an exotic hypercar. With a height of 1.1 meters, it would not even be allowed on Efteling roller coasters, but its width of 2 meters provided a low center of gravity. A combination of carbon fiber and aluminum in a honeycomb structure was used. The aerodynamic bodywork was also made of carbon fiber.

Chrysler ME Four-Twelve Performance

ME Four-Twelve would certainly only impress upon the claimed figures; the sprint to 100 km/h would take no more than 2.9 seconds and from 0 to 160 km/h it was 6.2 seconds. The top would be 400 km / h, but we would believe any other figure. Thanks to all the foreign equipment, and despite the heavy engine, it weighed only 1,310 kg. Without a driver, of course.

There were two models of the ME Four-Twelve – one for the Detroit show, which could drive but not nearly as fast as promised, and one which was maintained by Chrysler’s incomparable SRT department, which provided all the claimed performance.

How expensive would it be?

The tremendous speed came at a price; Chrysler was targeting $500,000 for the production version of the ME Four-Twelve. But it was also the time when cracks began to appear in the skin of mother DaimlerChrysler. The production of an expensive hypercar quickly became one iceberg too far. And then: would you part with the cheapest Ford GT?