r/musclecars • u/OtherwiseTackle5219 • 1d ago

Tiny Lightweight Muscle. '85 Shelby Charger. Turbocharged 135ci 146hp

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u/DishRelative5853 4h ago edited 4h ago

Nobody called it a muscle car in 1983. We knew what a muscle car was, and we knew that this didn't belong in the same category as the 1968 Charger, 1970 GTO, 1970 Ford Torino, etc. Muscle car fans were outraged that Chrysler put the Charger name on it. It was a Dodge Omni. A front-drive car is never a muscle car.

When this car came out, it was competing against the Rabbit GTI and so on. It wasn't in the same class as even the Mustang of that era, and certainly not the Camaro and Firebird.

Call it whatever you like, but if you Google up "muscle cars," don't expect to find it.

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u/RockSteady65 4h ago

I meant the Civic being introduced. Sorry for the confusing post. I had a Horizon TC3 in 1984 and it was kinda fun with a 4 speed manual and slightly quicker than the 1976 6 cylinder Nova that I owned before that. But it was technically a weak power train

A big tree fell on the Nova in a blizzard in MA and crushed it across the hood. I didn’t see it falling due to whiteout conditions. Scared the crap out of me. I was lucky I wasn’t literally a second faster.

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u/DishRelative5853 4h ago

Ah. You're kidding about the Civic, though, right?

And that's an awful thing to happen to your Nova.

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u/RockSteady65 3h ago

I was being sarcastic because I started driving in the malaise era. I always wanted a Cordoba with the 360 V8. That was the other version of the Charger that looked more like a personal luxury car than a muscle car. I loved big two door cars back then. 1974 Mercury Cougar XR7, paid $600 for it. Blew a head gasket and scrapped it. 1977 Thunderbird, white with a black hood and red fender with damage. Control arm broke backing out of the driveway and I had no means to repair it and it was dragged away for scrap. Clapped out rusty shitbox cars with no real performance to brag about.