Comments on: Daihatsu Charade Turbo- Pocket Rocket of the 1980s

By: Wajdan Asif

Wajdan Asif — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 08:50:47 +0000

Well i own one these in pakistan
“Daihutsu Charade detomaso g11 turbo”
I bought from barn find, Trying to make it better day by day

By: Faisal

Faisal — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 21:49:06 +0000

Nice memories. I still own one, a 1985 model red detomaso with cb60 turbo engine. Bought it in 1995. Love this toy

By: Assad

Assad — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 09:23:15 +0000

Thank you Ansari sn for picking picture of my white/gray DeTomaso Bianca… I still own this todate Alhamdulillah

By: Memories

Memories — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:41:37 +0000

Charade came in 23(!) different trim levels, common ones being the CL and CX. Most people who bought the it as new imported JDM had a CB engine with 6-valve cylinder head, 4-sp gearbox and tiny 12″ wheels IIRC. Later in the 90s, “reconditioned” imports started to come around and they had double-top (5th gear), most of them had CB-23 and CB-33 engines with EGR and 13″ wheels. Some models were hi-roof and had a slightly higher roof. There were diesel models with CL10 engine as well. All these CB and CL engines were 993cc, putting it in the lower tax category.

The DeTomaso Turbo was top of the line. It was only available in 2-door and came with 14″ golden rims. But none could match the DeTomaso 926R, a mid-engined rally car which was never offered for sale commercially.

One more thing: There used to be Charade Turbo which was 4-door and had a 6-valve cylinder head with turbo setup (CB-60 engine). And the DeTomaso Turbo was distinct because it had the CB-80 engine.

It was a common alteration to removed the turbo and utilize the exhaust manifold of the CB10 engine. Those days were simple without any electronics. It was easy to bypass the turbo. Daihatsu’s engine had a countershaft made of plastic to balance the natural vibrations of 3-cylindr engine. It was smoother than Khyber at its time. The cabin also bigger.

By: TruongNguyen

TruongNguyen — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 07:49:48 +0000

Great article as always! The Daihatsu Charade Turbo is a surely interesting car; it used a blow through turbocharging system, where the charged air would blow through the carburetor which would then go into the engine, nothing like the EFI turbocharging we are used to today. It also had no intercooling system needed, since the turbocharger was so small, an intercooler was deemed unnecessary and the engine worked fine without it! Very advanced and speedy for it’s time and era, in a very small package. Hard to see nowadays.

One thing I noticed with these Charades in Pakistan is that almost all of them have the standard CB23 NA engine with them, even the so called Turbo variants. While they looked the part, they always lacked the correct engine for it… I assumed that they were removed/swapped out for the more common engine since these are now older and parts for even the common versions are getting hard to come by now.