Firepower Doused

Chrysler Group is letting the flame go out on its Chrysler Firepower concept, the Hemi-powered “grand tourer” that stoked performance ambitions for the auto maker's core brand.

“We're not doing Firepower,” Trevor Creed, senior vice president-design, says. “We just couldn't find a viable way to do it.”

Reeling from the effects of bloated inventories, which led to a $1.5 billion third-quarter loss and an internal drive to shave $1,000 per vehicle-production cost, Chrysler is refocused on profitability.

Against this backdrop, the auto maker has said no product will enter its pipeline unless it has realistic profit potential. This approach killed the Jeep Gladiator concept earlier in the year. Gladiator debuted alongside the Firepower at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The approach also caused the Dodge Challenger concept — a can't-miss product in the eyes of most industry observers — to undergo rigorous scrutiny before the auto maker declared it would build the muscle car in 2008.