The Shelby Charger was a modified 1980s Dodge Charger

Dodge Charger (L-body)

The Dodge Charger was built by Dodge, a division of Chrysler Corporation. There have been a number of vehicles bearing the Charger nameplate, but the name has generally denoted a performance model in the Dodge range...

. Carroll Shelby

Carroll Shelby

Carroll Hall Shelby is an American retired automotive designer and racing driver. He is most well known for making Mustangs for Ford Motor Company known as Mustang Cobras which he has done since 1965...

 had tuned the Dodge Omni

Dodge Omni

The Dodge Omni and the similar Plymouth Horizon were front wheel drive cars introduced by the Dodge and Plymouth divisions of the Chrysler Corporation in North America in 1978, and were based on a European Simca-based design of the same name...

-based Charger for Dodge

Dodge

Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....

 from 1983 to 1987, with the resulting car sold as the Dodge Shelby Charger. When the Charger was discontinued, Shelby bought the last 1,000 and replaced the fuel intake and engine management system with the same high-performance one used in the 1986 Shelby GLHS

Shelby GLHS

The Shelby GLHS was a limited production sport compact automobile from the mid 1980s. The main differentiator of these cars from their regular Dodge versions was their use of what would become the intercooled Turbo II engine as well as Shelby Centurian wheels and Koni Adjustable shocks/struts, and...

. It had a blow-through long runner 2-piece intake, modified turbocharger (reclocked with a different compressor cover), and was intercooled. This engine was rated at 175 hp and 175 ft·lbf (237.3 N·m) of torque from 2400 rpm to 4800 rpm. This was similar to the Turbo II inline-four engine used in various Chrysler vehicles, but the Turbo II used a forged crank, as opposed to a cast one, and a stronger Getrag

Getrag

Getrag is a leading manufacturer of automobile manual transmissions. The company was founded on 1 May 1935, in Ludwigsburg, Germany, by Hermann Hagenmeyer; as the Getriebe und Zahnradfabrik Hermann Hagenmeyer GmbH & Cie KG...

 A555 5-speed manual transmission

Manual transmission

A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox or standard transmission is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...

 was used in place of the A525. The GLHS still came equipped with the rod linkage a525 transmission however. Shelby also changed the struts/shocks with Koni adjustable units, wheels from his own wheel company (Centurion 2's), and high performance Goodyear Eagle GT tires. His modifications prompted the federal government to declare the car a Shelby model. The trademark Dodge appears nowhere on the car, unlike its 5-door L-Body sibling, the GLHS Omni, which does have the Dodge nameplate. Shelby Chargers were built at Chrysler Belvidere, Illinois

Belvidere, Illinois

Belvidere is a city in Boone County, Illinois, United States. The population was 25,585 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Boone County. Belvidere is part of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

 assembly plant, with the GLHS models in 1987 being built at the Whittier, California

Whittier, California

Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...

plant of Carroll Shelby.