Anyone got $16k lying around? That’s how much it will cost to make this Omni GLH Shelby a part of your fleet. It’s just the thing for those of you who enjoy buying new front tires and rotating them on a regular basis. Or for those of you in the mood to scare the wits out of a passenger who has no idea what these cars are capable of.
I honestly didn’t know these cars were worth so much. The listing shows three offers having been made and rejected already, without providing any specifics. It’s hard to determine who this car’s audience is, since it’s not exactly a traditional favorite of import fanatics or the traditional muscle car crowd. It’s too cool to be boxed in, but that also narrowed its fan base. A production of only 500 cars helped ensure that whatever could be made would find a happy owner, but I wonder how many are left. Do you guys think the price is reasonable?
Let’s look a bit more closely: the seat cushion appears slightly flattened and the tops of the door trim is faded, but the interior is otherwise very presentable after twenty-eight years. The exterior is similarly hard to fault.
A-pillar mounted boost gauges mark the only potentially objectionable modification, clashing with Chrysler’s famously comprehensive instrumentation. Weird, considering the later, tamer Sundance RS came with a boost gauge standard. Pushbutton climate controls to the left of the wheel complete the idiosyncratic look. With a big intercooler, a 2.2 liter engine and air conditioning, the L-body was clearly designed with ample room under its hood.
As we see here, larger ducting and a K&N air filter show that some mild modifications have been done. The sound of the air getting sucked in must be intoxicating. On the listing, it’s stated that the car will be featured at a nearby car show next month. It’ll be a treat to hear it “live,” making any failure to sell the car beneficial to me in the short term.
The view from the rear says the most about this car’s intentions, in case any bystanders were still unaware, with a modified exhaust and aggressive treads on wide tires showing real substance. With an addition two degrees of toe-in on the rear axle, all the grip can be put to use without sending novices into the weeds too readily. 1986 would be the last year for the Omni’s Shelby treatment. The following year saw the package moved onto the L-based Charger, possibly in an attempt to lessen the nerd factor. I have a hard time deciding which of the two is cooler, but if I owned either, it would take a lot of self-control to treat them gently.
Related reading: 1985 Dodge Omni GLH, 1984 Dodge Shelby Charger, 1978 Omnirizon
One of the sneakiest sleepers there ever was, like a latter day Hornet SC/360, almost. I do believe these can do close to 14.0 seconds in the quarter mile if my mind recalls correctly. If it weren’t for the mods, 16k wouldn’t sound so bad. GLHS? Stands for “Goes like hell, Some-more”!
That’s exactly what GLHS means. And these cars will do every inch of it.
Even though I was born in the late 1980s I have never seen a GLHS in the flesh plus the Omni/Horizon twins have never been terribly common. My most memorable Omni/Horizon story is when the daughter of family friends bought one and found out that due to being in New Jersey the cost to insure the car was at least or over twice the car’s value. This Dodge is cool, but I feel like it has been too modified to pique my serious curiosity.
Hertz had versions of these for rent for a while (is that what the “H” is for?).
I rented one for a couple of weeks one summer in Fort Worth TX. One heck of a lot of fun, with one hell of a lot of torque steer. Also, it seems like the A/C compressor perhaps wasn’t up the the RPMs, One hot Texas day as I was hooning my way to the plant I was working at with the A/C full blast, smoke started pouring out of the hood as I pulled in. Opened the hood, and the serpentine belt was smoking and actually bubbling. That evening it seemed ok except for the A/C. Next visit picked up another, but returned it 5 minutes later as the A/C didn’t work.
Goes
Like
Hell
Shelby
There are some more variants.
Goes Like Hell, Seriously!
We nearly had a turbo Horizon for the UK,the prototype is in a museum.The rust monster saw off most UK Horizons a long time ago.
I looked this up when you mentioned it on the last ebay find. It is cool but the buy it now price seems at least 6k more than I would ever consider paying.
Those mods as far as the extra gauges, intake and exhaust will give you an insight as to the type of owner this car has and age range. They tend not to be realistic on their price nor on how many people might truly be interested in their car. Similar to an owner calling their huge 1968 New Yorker a muscle car and therefore trying to tap into “muscle” cars. Not! Here the hook is “Shelby”, but when I hear Shelby I think and only think 1st generation Mustangs. Without that this car is an econo box with a turbocharged engine but not a 16K one. He’ll be turning to offers for awhile
IMHO the mods kill the value of this car. These were rare to begin with and far too many were hooned to death in the early ’90s when they and the regular GLH Turbos could be had for almost nothing. Hopefully the stock exhaust and intake pieces come with the car for the restoration it deserves.
Bingo. Once I saw the extra gauges I felt that way, and hadn’t even seen the exhaust yet. 16k for somebody else’s idea of better than Shelby’s vision? Pass…
+2. If it was a low mileage, all original car like that Brougham Coupe from the other day I could see the $16k maybe even $20k.
I saw a GLH parked along a city street last weekend – first one seen in ages, and I had no time to stop. Aaarrrgh. So, the CC effect is strong as ever. This would be fun.
I can’t say I’ve much idea on the price on this one, but the comments ahead of me make sense.
Outside of an edition like this, these were automotive appliances by the mid ’80s. I gave brief consideration to a new standard edition, liking the idea of something practical and hopefully low maintenance for several years. It’s probably just as well I didn’t do it. I was able to drive a handful of older and far plusher and more interesting rides at cheap prices that I would not be able to duplicate today.
Even if I were comfortable with someone else’s modding capabilities, I still think this car is priced a bit high. Like others noted above, the modding kills the originality of the car. As someone who remember these cars (and drove them) when new, I would want one as close to original as possible.
I knew several people who had the GLH, and I knew a couple of guys who had the Charger GLHS version of this car and they were formidable back in the day. V8 power won the day for me, but I even had my own little stash of Mopar turbo power when I needed a boost fix. Mine was a responsible Lancer ES Turbo, with five doors that I kept for 11 years.
This car is neat, but not $16K neat. I would want to have a long, detailed discussion with the current owner on a number of subjects before I would pony up that kind of money for this car.
16000 seems way high to me. I don’t like this body style and I don’t like torque steer and bad as the regular ones were I can only imagine how this must be. My sister had an omni and it was always breaking down and it rode terrible and torque steered. It was great on gas got around 40 mpg but I really did not like that car. I remember it was easier to push it out of a parking Space than to try to find reverse. This is one body style I’m glad bit the dust. Now if the same happens to mini vans and SUVs and big broughams make a come back I will be so happy.
The mods this car has will do nothing for it other than reduce its value as a collectable car. It has a been thrashed by a boyracer look about it with the too large intercooler piping negating the effects of a freeflow exhaust coupled with the warm air intake it smacks of someone not really knowing what they are doing and just following ricer trends, take all the kiddie crap off it and it could be a rare Shelby again.
It’s a special interest car. It defies usual value metrics. The buyer is likely hoping that value will increase. So what is reasonable? It is like any other financial speculation: your limit should be the amount you can afford to loose, like 1 % of your annual gross income?
A sort of like a predecessor of the “ricer” cars- modified Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi EVO.
At a guess, this would be the only ‘body’ that copped both a Lotus and a Shelby treatment.
The Lotus is a rare car(as is any Horizon in the UK),expensive when new boy racers eventually thrashed them to death or wrapped them round trees.The UK’s climate didn’t help for a long life.Not sure how easy it is to make a “tribute” car take care if buying one
As similar as they look that’s actually not the same car–the Lotus was a variant of the Talbot Sunbeam, which was RWD despite having a very similar shape. Also the Horizon never had a 3-door model, unless you count the TC3/024 and their successors.
Very cool little car though, that Lotus Sunbeam.
I cant see $16K for it. Even the most collectible of turbo mopars would be hard pressed to bring that. The Daytona IROC R/T with the DHC 16v heads designed by Lotus is probably the most desireable, but the baddest of the Shelbys are right on up there.
I know others poo-poo the big intercooler pipes, but Ive owned a PT Cruiser GT…the stock rubber i/c pipes are total garbage. They swell up under boost reducing the pressure of the charge. They leak something fierce, even when new. As the rubber breaks down it just gets worse. I do prefer the pipes painted black to tone it down though. When I went with full hardpipes on my PT I re-gained all the boost that it was hemorrhaging prior to that. Drove like a totally different car.
Yes, those tasteful mods always increase the value of an older car whether mechanical or cosmetic. Case in point this 1970 Cutlass convertible at 19K because more than that was put into it. The interior is even more hideous than the outside. The only decent thing to do here is to drop an aircraft carrier on it and make it disappear.
Should note the Omni has had the BIN lowered to 14,900 and is being sold by a flipper as only they would say “mild tasteful upgrades”.
Cool car, I’ve wanted one since I saw an ad for them in an old car mag when I was in high school.
but no way in hell would I pay 16,000 for one. You don’t see them for sale often but I’ve never seen one anywhere near that price.
$16,000 for a crap box? Not on your life.
It’s not a “crap box”, but I agree 16,000 is absurd.
Back in ’84, Chrysler *did* take credit for the “Goes Like Hell” acronym–I didn’t know that:
I don’t remember the bumpers sticking out that far on these cars.
I owned an plain vanilla Omni at one time, and nearly went broke keeping it in cv joint boots.
Love the car, but no way is it worth $16K. As everybody else has mentioned the mods decrease the value on a collectable like this.
Those mods are all reversible, should the insane desire to do so rear its ugly head….
“reversible” has nothing to do with it. A modded car is a beaten car.
One of my favorite cars to drift in Forza Motorsports 4 for Xbox 360. While everyone else would use Skylines, I’d be going beast mode in the GLHS and taking first place almost all the time…. and getting hate msgs about hackin the GLHS.