There are cars that appear seemingly out of no where and knock your socks right off – and this is one of them. The Dodge Shadow, that humble, entry-level rental car built for the masses, apparently had the option of getting the motorsports treatment direct from the factory if you knew which box to check on the order sheet. Think of it like an ACR Neon before the letters ACR meant anything, just much rarer than those hopped-up Neons (which are already impossible to find). Check out this Dodge Shadow Competition Package here on Facebook Marketplace. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Rocco B. for the find.
The seller is asking $7,000 for this rare Shadow, and thanks goes to Barn Finds reader Rocco B. for the find. While it is well known that Carroll Shelby enjoyed messing with Chrysler’s lineup of econoboxes and giving them a serious upgrade in the performance department, little is known about the option to add the Competition Package to an otherwise ordinary Shadow. The Shelby CSX-VNT was Shelby’s crowning achievement among the cars he modified for Chrysler, and it used a heavily upgraded Shadow coupe to promote his novel Variable Nozzle Turbo technology. Apparently, if you knew about the Competition package, you could order that same high-performance engine in the plain vanilla wrapper of a standard Shadow.
While the CSX-VNT was by no means obnoxious, there was no denying it was a performance car. Gold-painted wheels, an aggressive factory body kit, lots of exterior color matching, and a lowered suspension left little doubt that it was breathed on by Shelby. If you were an enthusiast that wanted to fly below the radar, the Competition Package was an absolute home run. You still got these supportive sport seats, “Pumper” alloy wheels, bigger sway bars, and a boost gauge with none of the tell-tale signs that it was a performance car on the outside. Heck, most observers probably figured you just grabbed the wheels off of a Daytona and that was that.
The seller claims the Shadow weighs under 2,700 pounds, which likely makes this car feel quite light on its feet. With 174 horsepower and 205 lb-ft of torque, the get-up-and-go factor is strong with this one. The only downside to this Shadow is that it’s almost so obscure that it will be near impossible for anyone to know exactly what it is at your local car show or swap meet. In my opinion, this is a terrific option for a track day or autocross car that will likely fare quite well considering the VNT’s impressive top speed of nearly 160 miles per hour. Given it is rare but not obscenely valuable, a few dings from the cones or other drivers don’t spell the end of the world, either.
These are cool sleepers!!
Awesome little cars, but…160mph cannot be true.
downhill in a hurricane possibly?
Michigan State Police took one to a measured 147mph at 5k rpm while testing it as a potential pursuit vehicle against the 5.0 SSP Mustang. You might get another grand of rpm if you stayed in it long enough.
pretty close to 160, about 156.
Stan,
You are correct! I would put the top speed of that model at no more than 127 mph. Our 1989 Shelby CSX (with the VNT and our VNT was much better than Dodge’s VNT) would top out at 127. Our car also had better Aero than a “normal” Shadow.
Now, if you remember the Motor Trend Top Speed Shootout 1989 Shelby CSX…that car hit 148 mph because we pulled a fast one on Motor Trend and used a IMSA spec engine which was NOT a VNT and had 230 HP.
This has to be a blast to drive and i would love to own if i was thirty years younger. The number of cars and trucks that i never knew existed until seeing on Barn Finds is amazing.
In 1990 I went to Hawaii for a vacation. The rental car place had one of these for rent. He said nobody was ever interested in it as it wasn’t an automatic.
He asked if I drove “stick” ? Yes , was my reply. Where I do I sign ?
What a blast I had for the three days I had the car. Quite the sleeper. Third gear was the best when the turbo would “spool up” . Nice smooth rush to 80mph. Fun times
That would have probably been a CSX-T, rented by Thrifty. Was it white with grey trim along the bottom? They didn’t have the performance modifications this one has, but were quick. And not many were made.
I’ve only seen one of these. Yes, they are quick and probably caught some people in mightier cars sleeping. Cool find at a decent price.
I like these bodies better than the Chargers of the time, for sure. I remember those wheels especially, they seemed to make any of Chrysler’s K-cars look better. I actually thought they were made from a composite, but they are apparently aluminium. I must be getting them confused with the wheels from the Shelby CSX-VNT.
160 per, in this little machine, would leave marks in the steering wheel, from me. Nice car, probably the nicest iteration of this design.
Call me crazy, but $7K seems like a fair deal for a pocket-rocket like this…Phoenix car…clean…why not…
Back at this time there was a tech with RMVR who was a Dodge “trouble shooter” for the factory. He had one he’d drive to the track on race weekends. It was really quick. BUT, he had also “chipped” it so that it was putting out 240hp. He had also changed out the wheels and was running V rated tires.
Anybody see a mileage listed ?
117K miles in the FB ad.
Does look like fun….
I drove a CSX a couple of times, and it was pretty decent power and handling-wise. This would also be a gas.
I drove a couple of GLHs and being a front wheel drive fan. I was wildly entertained! I don’t know about this model but Scott Harvey was running the GLH show for Shelby. (I used to pro-rally with/against Scott. His last rally car was a fiberglass bodied, 4 wheel drive hemi powered (as in 426 hemi) Dodge Aspen! Rest in peace Scott!)