If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.

T O P I C     R E V I E W
Leo	I know a lot of people in this group are interested in the history of the Prowler and its options. Well, when I located my Kat (with Trailer), in Colorado, I asked a good friend of mine to check it out before I purchase it. I didnt really want to buy it sight unseen and I knew I could rely on Joe Rybicki to give me a good assessment. Little did I know that Joe and some friends of his had a direct connection to the development of the prowler trailer. Recently I remenbered Joes story and with all the "Trailer" discussions on POA recently, I asked him to write up the story. I printed his story below. At the end, I have added some pictures Joe sent me. I may have a few more comming. Maybe someone here on the board can add some additional information to the 'Trailer Story"! HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRAILER ACCESSORY FOR THE PLYMOUTH PROWLER BY JOE RYBICKI A long long time ago and far, far away ……(unless you lived in Detroit)................. During the winter of 1996, I received a call from my friend Charlie, who at the time was manager of MOPAR Performance Products. Charlie, my self and my best friend Jerry Poniatowski graduated from the University of Michigan at the same time and were always considered “car crazy”. The difference between us is that Charlie has lived the dream, that we all would die for. Charlie’s father was curator of the historic automotive division of the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan for nearly 50 years. He was a noted automotive historian and therefore due to his contacts in the automotive world was able to steer Charlie into incredible automotive engineering jobs at various Detroit car companies. Prior to that, Charlie was a racecar driver of some renown. Charlie worked with Carol Shelby on the Viper project, naming his first child, a daughter, Shelby after the automotive legend. For six months out of the year, Charlie had two responsibilities, one to put on the Mile High Dragster Nationals at the Vandemere Speedway in Denver, Colorado and another significant drag event in New Jersey, later in the year. The rest of the time, Charlie managed the division of MOPAR Performance Products. As I was saying, during the winter of 1996, Charlie called me at work. I’m a senior staff engine at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado. I have been a design engineer for all three of the major car companies in Detroit and have been building street rods since high school, along with restoring antique cars and a few vintage Corvettes. Charlie’s question to me was to come up with ideas for accessories for the soon to be released Prowler. Previously, Charlie had sent me preproduction prototype pictures of the purple colored roadster, so I was knowledgeable of its design and operational features. Immediately, it came to my mind, that owners of the car would inevitably want to tour or take long distance rides and since trunk space was virtually nonexistent, top retracting into the rear of the roadsters body behind the drivers compartment, a trailer option would be just the ticket for the Prowler. Many years ago, my best friend Jerry built a 1937 Ford Slant-back two door sedan street rod, small block Chevy powered, of course. The car is completely stock on the outside and on the interior, except for the modern day drive train and suspension modifications. It is a show quality car, having been displayed at the 50th Anniversary Detroit Autorama Car Show. Trunk space was at a premium in that vintage Ford, so Jerry purchased a 1937 Mullins Trailer to pull behind the 37 street rod. He, his three sons and I often motored from Detroit to the Street Rod Nationals in Bowling Green, Kentucky and we needed the room for luggage, a cooler, folding chairs etc. The Mullins trailer is a teardrop / art deco type of design, that is lightweight, aerodynamic and provides significant storage volume. Jerry painted the trailer 1937 Ford Washington Blue to match the car and put the same tires and wheel treatment on the trailer, so it would match the street rod. My idea to Charlie for the Prowler accessory was a similar styled trailer. I suggested to him that a Mullins-like trailer scaled to the Prowler’s proportions, painted the color of the car, with cycle fenders and a tire/wheel combination to match the car, would be very usable accessory. I further suggested that our mutual friend, Jerry, could provide the prototype, since he lived in Wayne, Michigan, a short distance to the Chrysler design studios, and Jerry’s trailer could be used as the basis for the design. Taking that cue, Charlie called Jerry, Jerry drove the Washington Blue, 1937 Ford street rod with matching Mullins trailer into the Chrysler design studio in Rochester Hills, Michigan where the trailer was to reside for the next four months. Chrysler designers scaled the trailer down to the Prowler’s proportions, painted it the color of the car with cycle fenders and tires and wheels to match the car, and as they say, that’s the rest of the story behind the optional Prowler trailer. Sometime afterwards, Charlie, who no longer works for Daimler-Chrysler, informed me, that to save cost, he suggested that the trailer’s tire/wheel combination, utilized a hub-cap wheel insert, that would be designed to simulate the Prowers wheels, but Chrysler’s executives thought that would be too “cheap looking”, since they were sparing no cost to create the first ever production street rod made by a Detroit automotive company, they wanted to do it right and they did. For the use of his trailer, my friend Jerry was invited to the Prowler’s initial press release celebration at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit, Michigan, where he met the president and other top officials of the then, Chrysler Corporation and receive numerous gifts and momentos of the historic Prowler press release event. THE END PICTURES!!!
CJ	Great story!
RADCAT RICH	Thanks Leo
RPL	Charlie Henry.....still communicate with him. Have him tell you about the other silly ideas that we wanted to do but weren't able to for one reason or another. Chrome front suspension, bumper "show plugs" to fill the holes left by removing the bumpers for "auto shows", hard top and etc.
pumpkin	Great read ,thank you.
tangled up in BLUE	great story...this kinda stuff is very interesting to read.....
BeWare	Very very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
ed monahan	Thanks Leo. Another great story brought to you on the POA. Prowler owners are the best.
Top Kat	Thanks Leo for sharing. Jim
Ed W.	quote: Originally posted by RPL: Charlie Henry.....still communicate with him. Have him tell you about the other silly ideas that we wanted to do but weren't able to for one reason or another. Chrome front suspension, bumper "show plugs" to fill the holes left by removing the bumpers for "auto shows", hard top and etc. It makes one kind of wonder. Even when you include the Corvette (50 years) & Mustang (41 years), is there a manufactured car out there that is as documented as the Prowler. We should all be proud of the recorded/documented history in 12 remarkably short years! Also, from a personal perspective, the legacy and assistance of P.O.A. is priceless..........
jfbart	quote: Originally posted by Leo: ...Charlie, ... informed me, that to save cost, he suggested that the trailer’s tire/wheel combination, utilized a hub-cap wheel insert, that would be designed to simulate the Prowler's wheels, but Chrysler’s executives thought that would be too “cheap looking”, since they were sparing no cost to create the first ever production street rod made by a Detroit automotive company, they wanted to do it right and they did. Great story! But I'm confused about the part quoted above. The original trailer DID use a hub-cap wheel insert. My purple (built 1/98) has the steel wheels and plastic simulated-Prowler wheel covers. Later the real aluminum 15" wheels were used on the trailers. So, in this context, what did Charlie mean by "they wanted to do it right and they did."???? BTW, does anybody know exactly when they switched to the aluminum 15" wheels? I presume that both silver-painted and chrome wheels were available to match your Prowler in '99. Since mine is a '99, I'd like to find a pair of silver wheels, if anybody wants to sell!
jfbart	+++ Bump. Leo: Any chance you could get a comment from Joe on what he meant by the paragraph I quoted above? Anybody know when the switchover from steel to aluminum trailer wheels was made? I'd like to know which is correct to go with my early-'99 purple. Anyone? CJ? Bueller?
ed monahan	I would say you want trailer wheels to match your car wheels, no matter when that trailer was made. But that is just my opinion and you might think otherwise and since it is your car, you are probably correct.
idive	I would like to get the info myself. I have a set to match my 97, but would also like to have a set to keep it original if they didn't have fully painted wheels till 99 models.
Ed W.	I know hwat the wheel & hubcap arrangement looks like as we have them on both of our trailers (one is for sale). I'd like to see a clean, clear photo of what the painted wheel looks like.
CJ	jbart.....sorry for the delay. I'm up at our lake cottage and don't get on the computer much when I'm here. I'm not sure about the switch with the trailer wheels, but I'll ask my hubby when he gets here tonight. jbart and mickey..........might be able to help you with the silver wheels......if interested contact me via pm or email.
idive	CJ - you have mail Ed - The painted wheels look just like the painted wheels for the car, only in 15", and without the little blemish in my pic. This message has been edited by idive on 07-02-2005 at 02:50 PM
Ed W.	Thanks Mickey, Now I'm looking for a set of painted wheels. Hubcaps suck! Any one out there have a pair of painted wheels? OK, how about one?
jfbart	CJ - you have mail. Count me in as someone looking for a pair of 15" painted aluminum trailer wheels. In case anyone's interested, I weighed a steel trailer wheel and it was 25 pounds. For comparison I weighed a 15" aluminum wheel off of an '85 Omni GLH Turbo, and to my surprise it was also about 25 pounds. So it doesn't look like we can count on much of a weight saving with the Prowler trailer aluminum wheels.
Leo	All the conversation is sure interesting, I didn't realize what I was starting when I put on Joe's story. I'll ask Joe to read This topic and maybe I can get him to comment.
Chi_Town_Prowler	A NUMBER OF THINGS REGARDING THE TRAILERS: First and foremost, I REALLY enjoyed reading about the history of the trailers. Very informative. This club is very lucky to have people like CJ and others who can provide some historical information about this car and is willing to share it with others without writing a book and charging. I noticed something interesting in the Prowler Accessories pamphlet from 1997. The large photo of the car pulling a trailer is truly unique. That's because the trailer MUST be a prototype. If you look at the license plate section, it appears to be recessed. The side marker light also is in a different place from the production model. What's weird is the fact that the smaller pictures below it show an actual production model! To those who were interested in the pipe dream of a new trailer and wanted to sign up to get one, I really don't get it. Guys like Ed W. (in Michigan) have them for sale and NOBODY BITES. Let's get real. The prices on these things really ain't gonna get THAT much cheaper and they most definitely WON'T go down, so just bite the bullet and buy one of the used ones for sale - ESPECIALLY FROM A POA MEMBER. I did and consider it the best move I did (besides getting the car in the first place). For those on the borderline, let me tell ya - THE TRAILER IS THE SINGLE GREATEST THING YOU CAN GET TO COMPLEMENT THIS CAR. If you think your Prowler gets attention now, you WON'T BELIEVE IT until you cruise around with that trailer on the back! From the rear it looks like a big Prowler followed by a little one! People are REALLY turned on. I drove through downtown Chicago being followed by a sweet Ferrari rag top and he didn't get HALF the attention I got with the car and trailer! Besides the looks that they bring, you won't believe how practical they are! The room in these things is ENORMOUS!! I've hauled groceries, plants, hardware, clothing, you name it!! Not to mention the junk I've taken on trips. Like the car itself, the trailer can only go up in value. Especially if only about 10% of the cars had them available. If you get one you will not regret it!!! P.S. If anyone has a set of chrome trailer rims that they want to trade for a good set of the silver ones, let me know. Or if someone has a set of chrome ones for sale, let me know.
jfbart	+++ Bump, just so this topic won't get forgotten. Leo, have you heard anything from Joe to add to this great story?
RPL	As a close to the Prowler trailer story, we purchased all of the remaining inventory from the trailer manufacturer. Just beginning to sort through the stuff, but if you're looking for fender tape, fasteners, seals or other obscure parts, contact us. The plan is to make this stuff available to owners rather than see it lost to the scrap pile. I posted the wheels and tires in the classified ads. Most are spoken for but you never know. Still have some steel wheels which would make a nice, low cost spare for your tailer. Another idea is to use one along with a plastic wheel cover attached to your garage wall as a hose/cord holder. I will be offering a POA wheel cover clock in time for Christmas. Prototype clock parts on the way. Photo in classified ads when complete.