The wrong car to build…I’ve heard that once, I’ve heard that a thousand times. Funny, though…every time I see someone who has built the “wrong” car, the finished product usually gets praised by people. Think about all of the cars that you were told to not bother with because they were worthless over the years. Now look at shows today. Did you ever think anything from the mid-1970s would start to look good? Did you ever think that you’d see the day a front-wheel-drive minivan would roll up onto a racing surface with a parachute on the back and enough grunt to back up the claim? I sincerely doubt it.
Speedhunters recently shot this Dodge Omni GLH, and it’s the kind of build that is captivating and polarizing. The GLH was a Shelby-backed project that took the otherwise frugal and minimalistic Omni line and, pardon the bluntness, gave it some balls. What would otherwise be Aunt Diana’s little gas-sipping hatchback suddenly became a front-drive, turbocharged little killer that in the right hands, is something to take note of. With a tuned 2.2L mill and suspension tweaking, it’s David standing in front of Goliaths, a rock in the sling ready to go. We’ve seen GLH’s before and appreciate them, but this particular one, owned by Chris Piscitelli, is built to an even sharper level. Take a look at Speedhunters’ layout of this little hot rod hatchback and see why taking a build path less traveled really does make all the difference.
Speedhunters Link: The Motor City Dodge Omni GLH
Owned a GLH back in the mid 80’s…it was a hoot to drive. Got rid of the funky steering wheel ( which was designed to stop a violent steering ocilation ) for a sponge wrapped Grant model, and put in a flip up sun roof. It had torque steer that could tear the wheel out of your hand if you weren’t careful…but for the $9gs
It cost me brand new…way too much fun! 🙂
I was at an autocross back in the early 90s that was put on by a local Corvette club. A guy brought one of these awkward appearing Omni\’s and proceeded to kick everyones ass in his class. He further went on to win quickest time of the day! Embarrassed a lot of Corvette owners and many other autox \”experts\” in their expensive imports.
YOu even know what GLH stands for Goes like Hell.
The ‘ GLH ‘ name had nothing to do w/ Shelby
those were badged foo foo versions
As Bob D said – the name comes from what the eng staff called them during the development stage – when they came in from a test drives of the mules the answer to the question ‘ what do you think ?’ was ‘ goes like hell ! ‘
Christer actually had a great little car in hand that was a competitor to the
VW Rabbit – and as usual they walked away …then they sold out to the huns who then dumped it on Fiat – oh well .
It’s got roll-up windws. How quaint.
Oh, everything about these is utterly awful, no question. All the joy that driving a crap ecobox can bring!
But that said, after driving a friend’s Shelby CSX (a Shadow with the 2.2 and a turbo) that had been turned up to run 20psi inlet pressure…. I won’t lie. These little bastards SCOOT! The handling is atrocious, they change lanes with torque steer when the power comes on, but my goodness it does indeed come on! What’s better, it comes in with that undersized turbo feel, so you end up with not a huge top end power hit, but a luxurious wall of midrange stomp, right where it’s useful (if you can keep the tires stuck!) in real life situations.
Reminds me quite a lot of the lightweight version of my MKV GTI in many ways. (A tuned 10.25:1 motor that is fed 22.5psi, but can’t hold max boost above 4krpm, dropping to 15psi at redline–a useful wall of torque, and a fat, lazy character.)
The Dodge Omni started life as a Talbot Horizon in the UK and after it was a spectacular sales flop as it was basically crap and ugly it was sent to the US and given some balls – which is just not fair as this is one hell of a car!
there was the lotus version too though, it was fun
and it started in france, not the uk
My favorite detail is that he made pulling the pin on the shifter grenade actually does something dragstrip related – in this case, turning on the reverse lockout.