The best thing about the 1987 Dodge Lancer Shelby was the turbo lag followed by eye peeling acceleration. My dad always looked over at me, grinning with a wild look in his eyes as he dumped the clutch, and then hung on to the torque steering helm as I laughed all the way to the next stoplight in Santa Cruz, California (when it was still cheap to live there).
In the mid-1980s, Carroll Shelby saw enough potential in the second generation Chrysler K-Cars to lend his name to no less than four versions: a Charger, Omni GLH (Goes Like Hell), Daytona, and the Lancer. Of all the cars, the Lancer had the most potential to capture the marketplace, a true American 3-series competitor. With its 5-door hatchback styling, crisp Euro inspired lines, and a fairly nice interior (that was as good as anything during the time period), the Lancer Shelby should have taken the driving world by storm; however, it has faded into almost extinction.
The largest problem with the Lancer lay in its fundamental layout. Americans of the 1980s viewed its useful hatchback as a marque of a cheap vehicle. That perception only worsened as the Lancer was only equipped with a 2.2L four-banger, another American no-no. Despite being producing 175bhp (147bhp in the non-Shelby), the drastic torque steer, turbo lag, and non-Euro feeling body lean chased off the import buyers as well.
Yet the few that bought one discovered something incredibly rare in Chrysler’s history, a car with character, a car that tackled corners with élan never seen in an American designed and produced sedan. They also discovered turbos that failed at 75K miles, electrical glitches, and early-failing shocks.
I will always remember a car that tackled Highway 1 in Big Sur with aplomb, a car that surged with gusto across the plains of Texas, and a car that still remains interesting in its design. If you ever see a Dodge Lancer Shelby, count yourself lucky. Rare when new, they are positively unknown, unloved, and non-existent now, which is a shame.
I tried to get my father to consider the non-Shelby Lancer GTS. But, driving one back-to-back with a Saab 9000, the Dodge’s many rough edges were evident.
Bits I remember:
–the interior seemed terribly cheap, even by 1980s standards; check out the IP fascia in the photo
–the shifter felt awful
–the suspension pounded across every bump in the road; this was back when Detroit did suspensions one of two ways, ultra-floaty or ultra-firm
–the turning circle was crazy wide
Motor Trend did pronounce the Lancer victorious in a comparison test with an Audi, though. Kind of like the Veracruz vs. RX350 more recently…
I still have my red 1987 Shelby Lancer. It has a leather interior which is very plush and comfortable. It has an automatic which is dog slow from a standing stop but a rocket when you stand on the throttle from 25-30 MPH. The only things that are crappy is the Pioneer stereo which has glitches and while I replaced the lifters it now sounds like I have a bad writ pin. It has about 110 K miles on it now and is stored as I have many other projects.
I owned the Chrysler equivalent of this vehicle (LeBaron GTS), and this review is pretty much spot on. It was better equipped and better looking (IMO) then the Lancer, with a grille that wouldn’t look out of place on a modern Lexus. Indeed, its sexy bodywork was probably its best asset.
While packing only 150HP, the sudden rush of turbo boost made it feel faster than it was. It had tons of gadgets, from the trip computer to the digital dash, complete with speech synthesizer (“A door is ajar”).
But all was not rosy. Like most 80’s Chryslers, it’s beauty was mostly skin deep. The 5-speed was junk, especially compared to contemporary Hondas and Toyotas. And sorry, but the interior was dated, even by mid 80’s standards. The K-car high cowl, upright windshield, and square design were downright primitive compared to what Honda and even Ford were doing at the time. Oh, and it squeaked and rattled pretty much from Day 1.
But ultimately, this car did give me a taste for touring sedans that persists to this day.
The pick of the litter was the GLH body. The Omni body was from I think Renault, and you got a Golf sized car with a rigid frame. The four doors helped quite a bit. The car was chry-co cheap but the basic structure was euro stiff.
I used to pick on 944’s back in the day, and even fought off a 911 for a while in gap-traffic. Once the road opened up and the 911 motored off it didn’t really matter as my whole car cost the same as his whaletail.
The K car variants were flexi-flyers in comparison. The only thing that was the same was the need to pull the wheel left while stepping on the gas.
The S versions were better as they had intercoolers. The non-S versions would go well until you tried to run them hard autobahn style and the ignition curves and boost would go away, esp on a hot day.
Still, I had lots of fun with mine, and ask the question….
Why do you have to hire Carroll Shelby to drag a car through the parts bin, bolt on the big brakes, and stiffen the shocks ???
Back in the day, I traded in a Toyota Corolla for one of these. I needed a bigger car with an engine with more torque. It was a pretty good driving car and the automatic transmission worked better than any of the other American car auto transmissions mated to 4 cylinder engines. However, the overall build, fit n finish was absolutely attrocious compared the the Toyota I had gotten rid of.
Overall it was quite reliable and inexpensive to run. However, it kept getting broken into and stolen (and for some reason, returned). So after the losing the car the 3rd time, it was time to get into something less likely to get stolen.
One of the most interesting cars in the Chrysler portfolio of the 80’s. Why it didn’t catch on is a mystery. Allpar as usual has some insights:
http://www.allpar.com/model/lancer.html
And the Omni wasn’t based on Renault, but Simca/Talbot Horizon, a development of its fwd Simca 1308/1508, and even before that, from the late 60’s Simca 1100. Here’s another interesting site about Simca and the english Rootes-empire, both taken over by Chrysler Europe and later sold off to Peugeot:
http://www.rootes-chrysler.co.uk/
One fun tidbit about the Omni was that it differed between the american and european versions, by some reason they had completely different front ssuspension set-ups. So they were not interchangeable.
If I had known then what I know now about turbo Dodges, I definitely would’ve held on to my Aries wagon just a bit longer.
Oops with the “Lancer GTS” in my earlier comment. Now I can’t remember if I drove the Lancer or the LeBaron GTS (one of about 27 LeBaron models they offered).
I might have some “documentation” to provide the answer: I got pulled by a cop during a test drive. Went to court with the “unfamiliar car” defense.
thalter did stimulate my memory: the car I drove was full of rattles and squeaks.
While it may not be a FWD Lancer, I still get slightly giddy everytime the boost comes on in my old 760 Turbo. Car still drives nicely and has a certain appeal that my Mazda 3 can’t match…maybe it’s the weighted steering and rwd of an old Euro sedan.
Nope, just that 24 year old Garrett AiResearch turbo kicking in and giving it’s little whistle.
Owned a non-Shelby Turbo Lancer back in the day…drove it for almost three years. Loved the gun-metal blue/gray and (for a college kid) thought the car was near luxury with the sport seats and all. I dumped about $2000 into a very, very nice stereo and another $1000 or so in tires/rims. Looked great. Yeah, it had acceleration, if you could get past the truck-like clutch and, um, stiff shifter. In the years I had it, ironically not much went bonk. It had well over 100,000 miles on it when I bought it and required a new clutch somewhere north of 130k (not that the new clutch made driving it any smoother, mind you). My best friend owned a Shelby Charger at the time that completely disintegrated (as in, burned to the ground), hence spoiling any taste we would ever have for a Chrysler product again. Sigh…but man, did my girlfriend love that Lancer…:)
I miss my 85 GLH turbo.
Almost bought a shelby lancer, but it was one of the automatics.
The turbo version of the Lancer (non-Shelby) was the second to last American cars my parents bought. My mom drove it 99% of the time, maybe 10,000 miles a year, very lightly. In just under three years it chewed up a head gasket, turbo seized up causing other damage, ect. Actually, my parents were quite forgiving of those things, what they didn’t forgive was the poor experience at the dealership. Blaming my then 50 to 52 year old mother she abused the car -that’s a set.
I had a blue 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby with a “Turbo II” intercooled 2.2L that had 174 hp. I thought it was great to drive but it made it to the dealer 8 times in the first year. After that nothing but maintenance. Sold it at 125K miles with the original engine and clutch that were still in perfect working order. I always wondered what happened to that car ……..
K cars and their derivatives had spotty build quality and were a bit, uh, flexible, but with a weight of 2400 pounds, that was forgivable because these were made with mileage in mind. Some ate head gaskets, but others would go over 200K on the original gasket. The 3 speed automatics were models of reliability-probably the most reliable automatics of the period. Squeaks and rattles abounded, but at least these cars were a piece of cake to fix. With such a light weight, they were quite tossable, too. With basic care, and no overheating episodes, they would easily deliver 200K or more miles.
I like to see that this car was given some attention. I thought that everyone had forgotten it. In a decade where possibly the worst American cars ever seen were built, this was a bright point. I also think it is quite good-looking. Thank you!
My best friend had an ’84 Chrysler Laser (Dodge Daytona twin) with the non-Shelby version of the 2.2L Turbo rated at 142hp. It had five years and around 80k miles on it when he got it, so it had seen most of its useful life.
1984 was the first model year of the Daytona/Laser twins. But more importantly, it was the debut of the 2.2L Turbo that Chrysler quickly crammed under the hood of every car they built! Looking back, I think the Dodge Aries/Plymouth Reliant were the only ones that never had a 2.2Turbo version.
Even the Dodge Omni/Charger had Shelby GLH/GLHS versions with both the 146hp and 175hp versions under the hood! Sadly, the Plymouth Horizon and Plymouth Turismo were never offered with the boosted engine…the Turismo Duster was the “sporty” trim level of that model. =)
My friend and I had a lot of fun driving that old ’84 Laser around town, though. I had heard of turbo lag and torque steer before. But it was this car that demonstrated BOTH at their absolute worst! The turbo lag was forgotten as soon as the boost kicked in, though.
1984 was also the year Chrysler began their fascination with electronic dashboards and talking cars! It was cool for about three days, then the electronic gauges were nothing special. The robotic voice became maddening after a few weeks!
After six months of so, that annoying voice surprised me with a new phrase that we hadn’t heard before- “Engine overheating! Engine damage may occur.” A week later, it was off to the scrap pile…..fun while it lasted, though. =)
one minor point: the Omni wasn’t on the K-car chassis! It was smaller.
I recently saw a Shelby CSX (Lancer) in, of all places, Nebraska. I freaked out. My dad, who doesen’t get it, thought I was insane.
I’m quite sure these cars are alarming to drive…
I bought a 1987 Dodge Lancer Turbo ES in 1988 after the original intended owner’s credit didn’t check out. I really wanted a Shelby Lancer, but the dealer apparently wasn’t getting more of them for a while, and offered me a substantial discount to take this car.
I loved that car. I had it for 10 years and 160,000 miles. I brought home both of my kids in that car, drove it to 24 states and kept me from purchasing a minivan. A little known fact about that car, if you maneuvered them right, you could fit a couple sheets of 1/4″ 4’x8′ plywood in the hatch area of the car. There were notches in the plastic facia in the back of the car that allowed those to slip in. Anything bigger (thicker), you were out of luck…
Four doors, a hatchback and the turbo/5 speed combination was a fine daily driver for a young family back then. I could still bolt in two car seats in the back and hoon around the neighborhood if I so desired. You couldn’t do that in a minivan. It was also (odd choice, I know) the first car I autocrossed in. I later realized it wasn’t the best choice, but it was a way to get started.
A friend back in the day had a Saab 900 Turbo that he thought was just fantastic. Just for giggles we lined up one afternoon, I blew off his doors by the time I hit third gear, every time. He was just dumbfounded.
It did have some mechanical issues, but I had them taken care of long before the 7/70 warranty ran out. I was fortunate to find a C-P dealer who had a service department with competent mechanics, and any warranty work was handled by them. The original Dodge dealer I purchased from was just piss poor. The one thing that did irritate me was part of the emissions control system, a throttle sensor of some kind (I cant recall right now) would routinely fail on me. I learned how to do it myself, as I was replacing them every other year or so. But of course, a specialized part like that was factory only, so I knew I would be going through a Benjamin to replace that part.
When my kids were little, they enjoyed the onset of boost and how it plastered them to their seats. My now-adult daughter will occasionally remind me of those times and we share a good laugh…
I wouldn’t mind having another one again, I really miss that car. We currently have a Malibu Maxx which is similar in concept (i.e. mid-size 4 door hatchback), but as good as that car has been for us, it still doesn’t hold the charm the Lancer did.
I owned the 88 Lancer Shelby (slightly different than the Shelby Lancer) for a while. It was named Red, and she was a $1.00 car I bought off a friend. There was SERIOUS jury-rigging under the hood by the time the head gasket finally went, and she’s gone to the big parking lot in the sky, now.
But let me just say, I loved that car. Around 150,000 miles on her (not quite sure exactly how many, since the speedo/odo didn’t work any more). It looked like a piece of junk, and at least once a week I’d get some punk in a souped up somethingorother at a stop light showing off, and they always got left in the dust. Loved that car.
I had a 1987 Dodge Lancer ES Turbo (non-shelby), light blue with all the toys. Digital dash, 5 speed, all power..etc. I absolutely loved that car. I bought it in 1989 with about 15,000 or so miles on it. That thing was like a rocket, as soon as that turbo kicked in,..zoom. That love lasted about a year, that’s when all started going wrong. First the turbo kept going on me, then the vacuum pressure kept failing on me. It was stylish for the time though. I put 50’s tires with chrome wheels on her and had all the black trim painted to match the car. I do admit I miss that car but I dont miss the headache of being broken down in the mid-town tunnel waiting for a tow truck!