"This car has a kinetic energy, as if it's about to lunge," says Tom Tremont, Chief Designer for Pacifica, Chrysler's West Coast design studio in Carlsbad, California, about Plymouth's latest concept car, the Pronto Spyder. "In fact we toyed around with naming it 'Gator,' because it looks like an alligator ready to strike its prey."

The Pronto Spyder is made from the same cost-saving material -- polyethylene terephthalate -- used in the manufacture of plastic bottles (and last year's Pronto concept car.) PET doesn't even have to be painted, since the color is added even before the mold is made.  "The in-mold color process allows us to do razor-sharp edges, precise intersections and incised names and details... Rather than a pure industrial design, we blend in romantic detailing and hint at that classic sports racer era," says Tremont.
           
The Spyder features a five-speed manual identical to the one used in the Neon ACR Racing Package. The rear-wheel-drive Spyder's supercharged, 200-hp transverse mid-engine is configured for exotic sports car handling characteristics. The Spyder also flaunts 18-inch cast aluminum wheels, an aircraft-style wraparound windshield and special tail lamps with neon     tubes. Seating is leather-faced, and the shifter knob features chrome and faux tortoise-shell accents. That tortoise-shell motif continues on the Spyder's unique "banjo-spoke-design" steering wheel, which incorporates circular writing banded together to form a spoke.