- Seller: Matt S
- Location: Factoryville, Pennsylvania
- Mileage: 100,000 Shown
- Chassis #: 1B3XG74A4KG175787
- Title Status: Clean
- Engine: 2.2 4-cylinder Turbo II
- Transmission: 5-Speed Manual
It’s hard to believe it’s been over 35 years since the Dodge Daytona Shelby hit the market and that they are now old enough for people to be performing full restoration on cars from this era. The seller of this 1989 Daytona Shelby rescued it from a Michigan garage where it had been sitting for roughly 25 years with a blown transmission. A lot of the hard work to get it back on the road has been done, but it needs a new owner to take it to the finish line. In the meantime, it’s a running and driving car.
K-Car jokes have been floating around for a long time, but the ’80s were actually an exciting time at the home of the Pentastar. It may never live down its front-drive architecture among performance enthusiasts, but the Dodge Daytona was one of several legitimate performance cars Mopar offered during a time when Lee Iacocca acted as company chairman AND commercial spokesperson. With a light platform and a 174-horsepower “Turbo II,” the Daytona Shelby would hold its own with IROC Camaros and 5.0 Mustangs.
Now in Pennsylvania, this car has been the recipient of a lot of hard work and new parts, including tires, fuel tank and pump, struts, and an entire digital dash. Of course, the transmission has been repaired. There are plenty of pictures and a video attached that portray the extent of the work that’s been done.
Anyone who has welded in floor patches knows what they’re looking at here. Any car from Michigan is likely to need some metalwork, and this Daytona was no exception. The seller removed all the rusty areas, welded in new metal and treated the floors to new paint.
New sound deadening will keep the noise where it belongs, and you may notice that the entire dashboard has been removed. Apparently, the digital gauges were no longer operational, so the seller replaced the cluster with a working unit; it’s worth watching the seller’s video to see it in all of its 1980s loveliness. Because it has a replacement gauge cluster, the odometer mileage is incorrect: It reads 143,000, but the seller claims the actual mileage is under 100,000.
It appears that much of the original interior was good enough to reuse once the floorpan work was complete. The video shows that there are a few issues around the T-Tops (no, T-Tops are not just for Camaros and Firebirds). Notice that this Daytona has a five speed, because driving a manual-transmission-equipped car is fun.
With some typical peeling ’80s clearcoat, this Daytona is not perfect, but it’s a good start on a car that you really don’t see on the roads anymore. Nostalgia for the ’80s and ’90s is big right now, so put those T-Tops in the trunk, pop in some hair metal, and let that turbo spool.
A blown manual transmission? Was this car street raced beyond it’s capabilities?
My buddy bought one of these dodge Daytona I think an 90 with the v6 automatic. Car would move out bery nicely . One day we were racing lol and he had is grill glued to the back of camaros bumper for about 3 miles. When we got were we going and got out we heard some sizzling. We popped his hood and automatic tranny dip stick was pushed up and tranny fluid was bubbling out. I was lmao 🤣 he clearly overheated the tranny when it got no air to it.
Fun times lol. It only happened the one time. But a head scratcher for sure.