Mopar

Mopar is an automotive supplier, the part of the Italian Fiat group. The in English for " motor parts" (motor parts) standing portmanteau word originally referred to a company founded by the Chrysler Corporation company, which should take over exclusive parts supply Chrysler respective automakers. Today, Mopar also produced for other companies as well as parts for car tuning and motor sports.

History

The late 1920s, the Chrysler Group included four automotive brands: Chrysler (including the top models Imperial ), Plymouth, DeSoto, and since 1928 also Dodge ( Imperial was first performed as an independent brand in 1955 ). To save costs, the different vehicle models should share certain parts and assemblies, especially the engines should be harmonized across manufacturers. For this, the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation was founded in 1929, a central supplier for spare parts, which were needed by all subsidiaries; later, the short form " MoPar " was officially launched.

In the 1950s, Mopar took over the development and construction of racing cars, with particular attention to the NASCAR racing series and tuning of production engines from Chrysler. As in the 1960s began the era of muscle cars, Mopar offered as a spare part division of the Group to get tuning parts that could be purchased from the authorized dealers. Originally the name Mopar should be 1937 used to refer to an antifreeze product line. The name stuck and became the name for everything that came from Chrysler, whether car or parts. Of course, the term came later by other products to the great popularity. So was " Mopar " slow are the muscle cars attributed to the unofficial collective term for all Chrysler vehicle models, such as the Dodge Charger, Plymouth Road Runner or Dodge Challenger.

Later, " Mopar " sneaked into the U.S. then as an unofficial collective term for all of Chrysler Group vehicle models one; in this way confusion was avoided, the " Chrysler " could bring as a term for the entire Group and as the name of the car brand " Chrysler " with it. Thus it can be read in many publications of Mopar vehicles, although never vehicles were produced under this brand name.

A common misconception is to continue, the motors of the group would be developed exclusively by Mopar and / or produced. Often we read for example of Mopar Hemi V8 engine. The fact is that Chrysler and Dodge developed the engines and also manufactured. At times, even different engines of the same displacement of two manufacturers on the market. Reason for the spread of this error is also the use of the term " Mopar " instead of (correctly) " Chrysler " in the company's history. This is due probably to the fact that the famous HEMI engine was initially established as a racing engine and also used by the own racing team, before it in its classical form was available exclusively as 426cui HEMI from 1966 in production vehicles.