At work today some kid in a 1989 dodge shadow came in to have a tire repaired and i couldn't help but take a look at this car. It turned out to be a shelby CSX VNT! I know these things aren't all that special, but looking in the front grill of this thing i could tell something was afoot. Needless to say, i had to investigate why this car had such a interesting spearco intercooler hanging in the front bumper and this is what i found!!



I love this plate...not obvious, is it?



Mmmmm....shelby recaros....


And here's the money shots!!


Looks like a custom fabbed intake, huge turbo, MSD ignition. The Block, heads, trans, and everything look like they have been refreshed...who knows what lies within....



Holy big turbo, Batman!!



hope you all enjoy my encounter today...i know i did! Heaviest clutch i have ever driven by the way...

 

ohhhh sick!!!

 

Agreed...Sleeptastic!

 

sorry for the lame pic quality...my digi cam is fucked up.

 

Watch out for that on the streets.

 

It has crazy turbo lag down low...but once it spools its intense!! And seriously, i do respect my customers cars. I do not abuse, race, or do anything that would be decidedly unsavory in someone elses property without permission.

 

Oh, and it has a full 3" exhaust turbo back, no cats, no res, and just a dynomax muffer and has a cut-out for when i guess he feels like really opening it up. The whole job looked custom. The intake manifold looks one-off, the exhause manifold with huge external wastegate with dump that plumbs into the exhaust tubing looks one off...this car had alot of $$$ put into that engine. The exhaust tho is shockingly quiet.

 

 

heres some more info on em

http://www.turbonation.com/shadow.htm

 

Close, but not quite. That is the regular shadow with the 2.2. this is the shelby with the 2.4L 16V with the getrag tranny. Only 500 were produced in 89. They made only 1000 CSX-T's in 88 for thrifty rental and 800 CSX's in 87. The 89 was the CSX VNT. The 89 was the only year to get the getrag transmission, were all painted the same color red. The shelby interior was standard but only about half of them in 89 got the recaro seats with the shelby logos. The VNT in the name stood for the variable turbo that they used stock to reduce or elliminate lag. The car was also fitted stock with the industrys first ever plastic wheels which were made by shelby and were a fiber re-enforced plastic in a 15" size and all painted gold. This car here doesnt have the stock rims unfortunately. I just did a bunch of research on this and i can't say that i dont want one of these things!! the looks i would get!! hahaha.

 

yeah dude i know all to well of sneaky sleapers.. my cusin is in a sleeper club he has a honda prelude that looks like its been in a car wreck ... it has a half ass bondo-ed up body kit on it.... under the hood, and under the car is all new and not a spot of rust.. he has a huge ass turbo in the thing where when it spools up and boost it sounds like a shotgun went off.. he hangs with a group of guys that have sleeper cars...they all look like piles of ****.. it pisses me off

he runs 10 sec 1/4 miles with this thing

 

Damn that is a clean setup. I hate to see the unsuspecting civic that tries against that one.

 

dude, i would hate to see me line up with that!! I wouldn't exactly rep our cars very well.

 

Sweet find, but I think it would be even more shocking to run into one of these.

http://www.turbominivan.com/

 

hehe SRT4 motor swap FOR THE WIN

 

SRT swap? uh, i'm pretty sure that motor is the stock.

 

Oh ****, that is a swap....it originally came with a 2.2...but is it SRT swap?

 

i saw one of those turbo caravans one day...made me laugh a litte thinking how easly it would whoop up on me

 

also saw a guy with a mitsu expo (minivan thing) with a 1st gen elcipse turbo motor swap...was supposably pushing 400+hp

 

there are versions of the expo that come turbo and with all wheel drive. a guy i work with used to have one and wrecked it.

 

u know whats worse then a turbo minvan... a turboed pt cruiser pushing 12 lbs of booost...


i lined up at a stop light next to this guy and he gave me the lets go look so we launched.. he burned my poor little 2.2 all i could here was ... and i quote.." wine....... spessssh" it was crazy as hell to i talked to the guy at the gas station and he said that he runs it at 12 pounds normaly but he can bump it up to 18..


i said to him.." well i didnt see that coming... nice sleeper.."

ps his plates said PTLSR= PT LOSER funny

 

Definitely an SRT swap...with a custom fabbed intake mani and a big turbo...that'll make for some crazy power. That's one hell of a sleeper, nice find man!

edit - after looking it over a bit more, that looks like a 50 trim setup with some nice cams on it, and of course, all of the fuel mods. He didn't slack off on that engine, that's for sure.

 

Yeah, he did that car right! The attention to details in the build looked impeccable. Unfortunately, we dont have a spec sheet and me seeing that car again and talking to that guy are probably slim to nill. So lets just hope that i never end up at a light with him...i'll get him off the line till that thing spools and then i'm all done.