Chrysler's C2 small-car program begat twin European and American offspring. The Simca version won the European COTY in 1978, but as today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe GLH shows, the yanks won the horsepower. Lucky yanks.
When Ford and Lee Iacocca got divorced, Lee got custody of the kids - er, Carroll Shelby - and set up house with Chrysler. By the time he moved in, the European-designed Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon were already on dealers' lots. Maybe it was the 75-hp VW-sourced motor, or maybe it was the corporation's impending bankruptcy, but Lee rewarded Chrysler Europe for their award-winning efforts by selling the division to Peugeot. Merde!
The Omni/Horizon, along with the K-Car and a healthy injection of taxpayer fundage helped keep the Mopar Madness moving, freeing up Lee to think about things other than kissing congressmen's asses. It also meant that he had time to return Shelby's calls, which had been piling up, and maybe find something for the Texan to do.
What Shelby did was to take the Dodge Omni out behind the shed and shoot a little performance into it, first with a mild-cam 110-hp edition of the then 85-pony 2.2 four, and later with a 146-bhp version that strapped on a turbo on the single-cammer, making torque steer omnipresent. It wasn't just engine mods that made Shelby his commission, the uniquely christened GLH, or Goes Like Hell benefitted from an upgraded suspension, polished alloy rims and high-back bucket seats to keep your head from ending up rolling around in the back due to the neck-snapping acceleration too.
This 1985 edition has the turbo engine, and adds enough acronyms to the existing GLH to make someone with OCD wet their BVDs PDQ. The seller, who claims that knee surgery prevents him from driving the five speed-equipped Dodge, has replaced the flat, high-back seats with a set of uber-bolstered yobbies out of a Neon SRT4 and has added an SLH brake package, although he doesn't say what all that entails.
Other not from the factory bits include a respray in darker than the inside of a well-digger's ass black, and what he says is an off-road computer from mother Mopar. Other than that, the car is claimed to look and taste like an '85 GLH, just like Shelby made. You get the original seats along with the SRT thrones, and the claim is made that, as a southern car, rust is not spoken here. Inside, the seller also makes the claim that everything is awesome. Outside, the windows have a Pedobear-level tint, and the sunroof looks like it's one of those Pep Boys pop-ups rather than a factory slider, but who cares?
Like the VW GTI, the Dodge GLH is one if the original hot hatches here in the U.S.. The Omni, along with its Horizon twin were also the first American-built front-wheel drive cars Chrysler ever sold in the US of A, making owning one an interaction-killing point of discussion at any party. But once you leave that party - solo, or with a new acquaintance who may or may not share your proclivity for Mopar front-drivers, you'll have a rockin' trip home in this GLH, if the seller's description of condition is to be believed. Mileage is not an attribute chosen to be shared, but a cross my heart and hope to die promise that the car has never been raced is.
That's the kind of trade-off that engenders eye rolling and the question of the seller's understanding of a buyer's priorities, but the $6,200 price puts the buyer's sensibilities front and center. That's literally about half what this GLH went for when new, but lord knows this thing ain't new anymore. Still, sixty two hundred is almost drop it on your Visa® territory and despite this GLH's age, there's likely still a lot of life left in it.
So, what do you think about $6,200 for this acronym-laden Omni, is that a good price to go like hell? Or, is that price make you say WTF for this GLH?
You decide!
Hotlanta Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. H/T to BimmerHead for the hookup!
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