Shelby Badged A Dodge Lancer In 1987, And This Forgotten BaT Listing Proves It Actually Happened
A nearly untouched 1987 Shelby Lancer is live on Bring a Trailer, and it’s the kind of car that makes even die-hard Mopar people do a double take. Carroll Shelby spent the 1980s turning Dodge‘s front-wheel-drive economy cars into turbocharged pocket rockets, and this Lancer is proof that era went further than the famous Omni GLHS and Shelby Charger. The auction ends November 3, and bidding currently sits at $5,200 for a car with somewhere between 1,100 and 1,500 miles on the odometer depending on the listing source.
This isn’t a Dodge with a Shelby badge slapped on for marketing. The 1987 Lancer was actually built at Shelby Automobiles’ Whittier, California facility, making 1987 the only year these cars came out of Shelby’s own shop rather than a Chrysler assembly line. Only 800 were made that year, split evenly between three-speed automatic and five-speed manual transmissions, and they came in exactly one color: Graphic Red.
A Turbo Four Doing The Work Of A V8 Legend’s Name
Under the hood sits a 2.2-liter Turbo II four-cylinder, intercooled and tuned for 175 horsepower and 175 lb-ft of torque, numbers that held steady whether you rowed your own gears or let the TorqueFlite automatic do it. Shelby added a sport-tuned suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, a front air dam, body-color ground effects, and 15-inch basketweave wheels to back up the turbo motor. Period testing reportedly put the car’s skidpad grip at 0.85 g, a figure that beat a Porsche 928 of the same era.
The car up for sale wears plaque number 590 of the 800 built, finished in the mandatory Graphic Red over gray leather, and fitted with the optional automatic. It carries air conditioning, power windows and locks, and a factory CD player, which was a genuinely rare feature to find on anything in 1987, let alone a compact Mopar hatchback sedan.
A Shelby Mustang Traded Away For A Lancer
The backstory adds another layer to the car’s appeal. According to the seller, the original owner’s father traded in a 1960s Shelby Mustang to buy this Lancer new, then drove it sparingly enough that it’s sat at barely four figures on the odometer for nearly four decades. The listing includes a window sticker totaling $18,660, delivery records to a South Dakota dealership, a Certificate of Origin, and a clean Carfax, along with honest flaws like hood paint cracking and worn rear weatherstripping.
The seller does note a few imperfections, including an intermittently working head unit, which keeps this from being a flawless unicorn. But for a car this old with this few miles, minor wear is part of the story rather than a dealbreaker.
Why These Cars Mostly Vanished
After 1987, Chrysler took production in-house to its Sterling Heights plant for 1988 and 1989, badging those cars Dodge Lancer Shelby rather than giving them Shelby’s own build quality or numbered plaques. Those later cars totaled just 487 combined, and the Lancer nameplate disappeared entirely after 1989. Enthusiasts tend to picture a Shelby as a rear-drive V8 car, so a turbocharged front-wheel-drive sedan never got the attention the Omni GLH-S or Shadow CSX did, and the name’s similarity to the unrelated Mitsubishi Lancer didn’t help its memory.
Recent 1987 Shelby Lancer sales on Bring a Trailer have ranged from $3,500 to $10,000, so where this low-mileage, well-documented example lands before the November 3 close is worth watching for anyone curious how the market values Shelby’s most forgotten chapter.
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Shelby Badged A Dodge Lancer In 1987, And This Forgotten BaT Listing Proves It Actually Happened
A nearly untouched 1987 Shelby Lancer is live on Bring a Trailer, and it’s the kind of car that makes even die-hard Mopar people do a double take. Carroll Shelby spent the 1980s turning Dodge‘s front-wheel-drive economy cars into turbocharged pocket rockets, and this Lancer is proof that era went further than the famous Omni GLHS and Shelby Charger. The auction ends November 3, and bidding currently sits at $5,200 for a car with somewhere between 1,100 and 1,500 miles on the odometer depending on the listing source.
This isn’t a Dodge with a Shelby badge slapped on for marketing. The 1987 Lancer was actually built at Shelby Automobiles’ Whittier, California facility, making 1987 the only year these cars came out of Shelby’s own shop rather than a Chrysler assembly line. Only 800 were made that year, split evenly between three-speed automatic and five-speed manual transmissions, and they came in exactly one color: Graphic Red.
A Turbo Four Doing The Work Of A V8 Legend’s Name
Under the hood sits a 2.2-liter Turbo II four-cylinder, intercooled and tuned for 175 horsepower and 175 lb-ft of torque, numbers that held steady whether you rowed your own gears or let the TorqueFlite automatic do it. Shelby added a sport-tuned suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, a front air dam, body-color ground effects, and 15-inch basketweave wheels to back up the turbo motor. Period testing reportedly put the car’s skidpad grip at 0.85 g, a figure that beat a Porsche 928 of the same era.
The car up for sale wears plaque number 590 of the 800 built, finished in the mandatory Graphic Red over gray leather, and fitted with the optional automatic. It carries air conditioning, power windows and locks, and a factory CD player, which was a genuinely rare feature to find on anything in 1987, let alone a compact Mopar hatchback sedan.
A Shelby Mustang Traded Away For A Lancer
The backstory adds another layer to the car’s appeal. According to the seller, the original owner’s father traded in a 1960s Shelby Mustang to buy this Lancer new, then drove it sparingly enough that it’s sat at barely four figures on the odometer for nearly four decades. The listing includes a window sticker totaling $18,660, delivery records to a South Dakota dealership, a Certificate of Origin, and a clean Carfax, along with honest flaws like hood paint cracking and worn rear weatherstripping.
The seller does note a few imperfections, including an intermittently working head unit, which keeps this from being a flawless unicorn. But for a car this old with this few miles, minor wear is part of the story rather than a dealbreaker.
Why These Cars Mostly Vanished
After 1987, Chrysler took production in-house to its Sterling Heights plant for 1988 and 1989, badging those cars Dodge Lancer Shelby rather than giving them Shelby’s own build quality or numbered plaques. Those later cars totaled just 487 combined, and the Lancer nameplate disappeared entirely after 1989. Enthusiasts tend to picture a Shelby as a rear-drive V8 car, so a turbocharged front-wheel-drive sedan never got the attention the Omni GLH-S or Shadow CSX did, and the name’s similarity to the unrelated Mitsubishi Lancer didn’t help its memory.
Recent 1987 Shelby Lancer sales on Bring a Trailer have ranged from $3,500 to $10,000, so where this low-mileage, well-documented example lands before the November 3 close is worth watching for anyone curious how the market values Shelby’s most forgotten chapter.
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