NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

“I had a lot of fun building those Dodge pocket rockets. Every magazine in the country, every publication, said, ‘What the hell is Shelby doing building those?’”

That was the Carroll Shelby mindset: Take something nobody else has thought of—mostly because they would consider it crazy—do it, and amaze everyone with just how good the finished product turned out to be. Undoubtedly, the enthusiasts who heard of Shelby’s collaboration with Chrysler in the 1980s met it with the same doubt as those who wondered who would stuff a Ford V-8 in an AC Ace 20 years earlier. It was impossible, they thought, to make a genuinely exciting automobile out of a Dodge Omni. There were insurance regulations! There were emissions guidelines! It was impossible to make anything worthy of the Shelby name out of a little econobox.

Of course, they were wrong. The Shelby GLHS—“Goes Like Hell S’More,” in Shelby’s parlance—was hot, very hot. No longer your nice, everyday hatchback, black paint and special graphics were only the beginning. The Omni’s light weight and short wheelbase enabled nimble performance and adroit handling. Aided by Shelby’s modifications of beefed-up suspension with Koni shocks, 15-inch Shelby Centurion alloy wheels with Goodyear Eagle GT II performance tires, and a 175-horsepower intercooled, fuel-injected turbocharged four-banger, the performance numbers were outright astonishing. Advertisements bragged that “at 0–60 in 6.70 seconds, names like Porsche, Ferrari, Audi, and BMW all finish behind Carroll Shelby’s new Limited Edition GLHS.”

The GLHS offered here is Carroll Shelby’s personal car, offered to benefit the Carroll Hall Shelby Trust. It has 7,733 actual miles and remains in thoroughly well-preserved condition, with only minor wear throughout; the paint is in good shape, with only minor scratches, and the interior, especially the upholstery, appears virtually new. Undoubtedly few GLHS’s survive worldwide in such original condition, or with such low miles. And only one belonged to Carroll himself!

Carroll Shelby was proud of the GLHS for the rest of his life, and he should have been. It was, as much as the original Cobra, an automobile that showed the man’s genius for creating big things out of disarmingly simple ideas. Offered here is his own car, in the same “well-preserved but obviously enjoyed” condition as his Cobras, for the Shelby collector who recognizes a future collectible when he or she sees it.

Remember to always go like hell, s’more!