As a fan of smaller cars there is a special place in my heart for the hot hatch. Undersized with a peppy engine, they can come across as the underdog but are fun to drive. Muscle cars are awesome with low-end torque, but there is a unique form of pride when you can get great road performance with less horsepower. Plus what’s more fun pushing the limit of a hot hatch on a twisty two-lane road?
If you were a consumer in the mid-80s and prefer American cars you didn’t have a lot of hot hatch options from domestic producers, but Carroll Shelby provided his golden touch to one manufacturer.
The Pick of the Day is a 1986 Dodge Omni GLH-S listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in O’Fallon, Illinois. (Click the link to view the listing)
“Though many know Carroll Shelby worked much of his career with Ford, there was a time in the 80’s that he was heavily improving the performance of the Dodge stable,” the listing states. “The Omni was an economy-minded car designed to help get from point A to point B as efficient as possible. A special trim GLH (for “goes Like Hell”) was introduced in 1984 with help from Mr. Shelby.”
Shelby’s influence on the Omni was immediate as the horsepower in the 2.2-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine was increased from 146 to 175 over the lower model GLH. Mopar fans had a proper hot hatch, but production was limited to 500.
This example is #53 and received a documented restoration, circa 2002-2003. The 2.2-liter inline-four turbo engine’s boost pressure was increased to 16-17 psi and the five-speed manual transmission features an upgraded limited-slip differential.
The asking price is $19,000 for this Shelby hot hatch from Dodge and the listing indicates that it has 10,538 miles since the rebuild. The pictures in the listing show a car that’s in solid shape on the inside and outside.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
So Carrol Shelby made junk too?
Compare it to a ’86 2.8L Camaro with 135 hp. More power in such a small package = fun to drive.