Used Car of the Day: Shelby Lancer
Here's a unique one -- a 96,500-mile Shelby Lancer for four grand.
This Florida-based car appears to have some rust and some other minor issues, such as a CD player that doesn't work and gauges that work only intermittently. There are some minor electrical issues and the interior looks old.
On the other hand, the 5-speed transmission has been rebuilt, there's a new clutch, and other major parts are either original or have been kept up to date.
So if you're looking for a rare '80s ride that needs some work but isn't a massive project, this might be your speed.
And if it isn't, please remember that the cars we feature here are interesting -- and that doesn't always mean show-worthy.
[Images: Seller]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
More by Tim Healey
Comments
Join the conversation
Bought a broken one about 20 years ago for parts. Ended up fixing it and did pretty well winter rallying it as one doesn't want a valuable car for winter rallies.
Fun sleeper and even more so as I had no respect for it an thrashed it whenever possible. Finally perforated the block and then it turned into a parts car. BTW, they have the 555 Getrag rock crusher transmission.
" Alpine replaces Pioneer and CD she no work, upholstery looks like it's 37 years old, a couple stars on windshield, Tach works when it wants to, fuel gage same, rear window and door lock electrical problems."
That want ad description write-up is by far the greatest display of English ever shown by Florida Man. I am in awe, and thinking DeSantis should start shipping a few extra textbooks down there pronto instead of banning them.
The picture of the interior reminded me of how it was like sitting in a bucket while driving those. This was around the time where many in my immediate and extended family were switching from American to Japanese cars, especially Hondas and Nissans. And those at the time - the ultra low cowl especially in the Civics and Accords made you feel like you were sitting on top of the dashboard with 360 degrees of glass all around you. And then someone in the family had something similar to this - the LeBaron GTS. That entire dashboard was a massive slab billboard that seemed to loom over you while driving. I remember the A/C controls were tiny. The vents were tiny. The radio was standard double-DIN size. The gauges were kind of small. And there was just so much hard, hollow plastic that was so high up that it seemed to shrink the windshield.
And Chrysler? It's GAUGE. Not GAGE. For decades that has been under my skin when I see that idiot light on an older instrument panel.