A lot of people cringe at the thought of Carroll Shelby’s time with the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980’s. Unlike the screaming Mustangs he did for Ford, and certainly nowhere near the legendary AC Cobras, his wound up Chrysler stuff pretty much was all about handling and turbocharging, with the V8 Shelby Dakota being the closest thing to traditional that he touched during his tenure. While front-drive performance isn’t everyone’s bag, the cars that Shelby did do magic with were surprising, posting the kinds of numbers that would go up against their contemporary rivals with ease…and a bit of torque steer.
Gesswein Motors in Milbank, South Dakota felt like they had a pretty decent level of foresight, because they squirreled away four Shelby Mopars into dry temperature-controlled storage and sat on them. Whatever the justification was for bringing them out now, nobody knows, but what is known is that all the cars are the #6 of their respective year and series, have all of the delivery plastic still in place, are still on Manufacturer Certificate of Origin documentation, and have about 25 miles on the clock.
There are two Shelby CSX’s, a black 1987 with the Turbo II Intercooled 2.2L four cylinder, and a red 1989 with the VNT-equipped 2.2L. Both cars sport 175hp, but the ’89 has more torque, thanks to the variable-nozzle turbo, bringing it up from the 175 ft/lbs. of the Turbo II Intercooled to 205 ft/lbs. The Lancer also packs the Turbo II Intercooled motor, but is set up more as a sports sedan than a street brawler, due to Chrysler’s desire to have a BMW 3-series fighter in the lineup. The Shelby Dakota took a regular-cab shortbed Dakota and jammed in the 318ci V8, hooked to a new four-speed overdrive automatic. Out back, 3.90 gears helped the Dak feel more lively than the 318’s 175hp rating.
So, to the first question when it comes to an eBay find: just how much are four Shelby Mopars that really haven’t ever seen the light of day worth? According to the seller, $30,000 apiece, but since these cars are being offered up as a package deal, that’s $120,000 for the entire lot. Whether he gets that number has yet to be seen, but the opportunity be the first owner of four Shelby vehicles, regardless of the model, might be too much for a collector. Let’s face facts: stranger things have happened in the collector car market.
CLICK HERE to see the eBay listing for these still-in-the-plastic Shelby Mopars!
All of those cars would be pretty cool. Shelby did state in an interview that the Mopar Dodges were one of his favorite projects, because it was doing a lot with absolutely nothing.
Several in the “collector car” market I’ve talked to have said that the 80’s cars are where the market will go. The “millennials” are going to be really interested in stuff from before the factory muscle car wars, and even those they aren’t going to be interested in completely stock form (hint; they’d rather spend more money on a pro-tourer). But the cars of the 80’s, especially those that went abov e-and-beyond the malaise cars (GNX, Shelby’s, 3rd gen F-bodies) will be “where it’s at” for the coming buyers at Barrett-Jackson and the like.
Whether that time is now though, will remain to be seen. If these 4 sell for the wanted price, that will be the answer.
For me, I’d offer $90k for the lot. Because I would not keep them stock.
Think of that Lancer set up to be able to take on today’s M-class Bimmer!
He is probably selling them off to make room for more interesting cars (A Hellcat or two come to mind…). I understand that Jim Gesswein has quite an interesting collection of cars that occupy several buildings. I have seen a few, but not many because they aren’t displayed, they are stored.