For the Shelby Dodge folks

Seeing Moparman's post in the Collector Insurance thread reminded me to post this.

After getting the runaround on a collector policy for her Shelby Dakota she decided to do some research on the Shelby Dodges and put a site together to clarify what the Shelby Dakota is as well as the other numbered Shelby Dodge offerings of the '80's.

www.shelby-dodge.com

This is not a commercial site. It was built to provide information. Please do not take it as a canoe. Feedback is welcomed.

-Rob

hahaha i got halfway throught your post and started going, "canooooeeee, CANOOOEEE"

grimmelshanks wrote: hahaha i got halfway throught your post and started going, "canooooeeee, CANOOOEEE"

Yea, with all the canoes lately I was holding off posting anything. Didn't want to get that scorched forrest image sent my way.

But seriously, the site is just for information on those cars. No sales, no message boards, etc. A whole lot of research went into it. Not just a cut and paste job.

i think its an awesome resource personally and youve done a good service by letting us get a peek. thanks bro :-) if i get a csx or some other shelby type product, ill hit this up

Excellent site, especially considering it is without any advertising / sponsorship.

Nice.

I bought new a GLHS in '86. That was a genuinely high-performance automobile. Years after I sold it, I read to my wife a paragraph from Autoweek about Shelby selling most of his personal cars. One of the ones he was keeping was a 400 hp, four wheel drive GLHS. "Oh, that would be great," says my wife. "Flying down the road in a tin can." I had no idea she hadn't enjoyed the car as much as I did.

chuckles wrote: One of the ones he was keeping was a 400 hp, four wheel drive GLHS.

Any info on THAT?

"Flying down the road in a tin can." I had no idea she hadn't enjoyed the car as much as I did.

I like that that came up within a handful of posts in one thread here.. it NEVER comes up on the actual turbo mopar/dodge boards. That's the main reason i dont particularly like or want an l-body.. they're too flimsy.

I feel the weight disadvantage gets you a lot of safety in the K-cars with the same engines. For example, i feel pretty safe in my 2400 lb turbo Aries; its got all the structure of the 3000 lb k-cars but with less momentum. :)

Any info on THAT?

Not too sure how he built his but there's at least one high-power AWD swapped l-body right now and many projects in the works. Mostly using adapted AWD Caravan parts. I too will be using AWD Caravan parts.. on my Caravan

Appleseed wrote:

chuckles wrote: One of the ones he was keeping was a 400 hp, four wheel drive GLHS.

Any info on THAT?

No, at least not yet. Only stuff that was verified made it up there. I'm not familiar with that AWD GLHS project. She doesn't have any information on it. I know about the AWD Daytona prototype and the article in Hot Rod that featured it. If anyone knows what issue of Autoweek or any other publication that might have featured that GLHS let her know.

I miss my '84 Shelby Charger.
Stupid doe.

I've missed out on so many good deals on shadows/CSX's it makes me sick...including an 89 or 90 (can't remember) competition package car....that the guy didn't know was a competition package car. :(

I had no idea that Shelby even touched a dakota... pretty cool

Very cool...thanks!

slantvaliant wrote: I miss my '84 Shelby Charger. Stupid doe.

A deer?

A female deer.

doh!

Appleseed wrote:

chuckles wrote: One of the ones he was keeping was a 400 hp, four wheel drive GLHS.

Any info on THAT?

Actually Shelby's personal GLH-S wasn't AWD. Just FWD I believe. With a head designed by Hans Hermann, which was used on the PPG Indy Pace Car and the IMSA GTU race cars I believe. If you get a look at a Hans Hermann head, you'll see how similar it is to later VW heads. He also did a lot of work for BMW.

The Daytona 444 concepts were all destroyed. The 4wd solution they used had an AMC solid front axle mounted in the back with a custom PTO made to interface with the 5-speed transaxle and the requisite gas tank modifications, etc. Engine was 16-valve with dual cams. Not sure which head they used, probably an early Lotus head, if not the Hans Hermann unit.

The camshaft gear was specifically built to change the timing of the camshaft up to 10 degrees via hydraulics and a control solenoid. Made huge performance gains, but was speculated to cost around $10K per car to produce. The prototypes were insanely expensive at the time. How Honda pulled this off for so cheap and make it reliable is pretty impressive, obviously simplifying the solution to only change cam timing in one direction and at a certain RPM is all it took. Of course this technology has been around for years with varying levels of success, see Franco Timing Gears, etc.

He still loves that car to this day. Says it is his favorite out of all the cars he's built (or had built), which is saying a lot when you look at what's been in his garage :)

A now infamous quote from him about driving the turbo-dodge cars: "If you got turbo-lag, you ain't driving it right!"

Where did you get that cool picture of my #233 Shelby Dakota? I can't picture where that was taken. Also, I have 119,000 miles now. Very cool site.

Moparman wrote: Where did you get that cool picture of my #233 Shelby Dakota? I can't picture where that was taken. Also, I have 119,000 miles now. Very cool site.

Wasn't me, I'm just the messenger. I'll see if I can talk my friend into registering here. She's been researching the Shelby Daks for a while and collecting data. The other numbered Shelby Dodges came in later.

Want to put a few more miles on #233? Our local Mopar club is having our show and BBQ on June 13th in the Glen Mills, PA area. I can send you some info if you want.

-Rob

Nice website. One day I will own one of these.

:( i miss my shelby charger doh... wish I could have finished her up right... but no instead i'm rolling around in a POS '91 escort... (thanks john ;-)

SilverFleet wrote: Nice website. One day I will own one of these.

A website?

Yeah! Websites are cool!!!!

I told the story on here before in another thread, but ever since I went to a local Shelby club-sponsored car show and heard a lecture from Shelby's old parts manager from the Dodge days, I have a very strong appreciation for these cars. If it weren't for them and Dodge teaming up and making fast, turbocharged small cars, a lot of the ones we drive today wouldn't be in our driveways right now. I'm not saying they were the only game in town, but some of the stuff they did back then was really ahead of their time.

cwh wrote: A female deer.

Not a drop of golden sun that day.

A very dead female deer, after inflicting mortal wounds to my Shelby. The day I let the car go, it still had deer hair embedded in the front bumper cover.

Thanks for sharing. I thought I'd heard of all the Shelby Dodges, but that site has ones I had no idea ever existed.