Used Car of the Day: 1988 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z
Today's UCOTD is clearly a project car -- but it runs.
This 1988 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z needs a lot of work, which is why the price is low, but it's not up on blocks.
This blue-exterior/gray interior car has T-Tops and popup headlights and the Ohio-based seller wants $1,800.
The car needs a lot of bodywork, including the floor pan, and it has some rust. The seller has done a lot of work on the mechanicals, but there's also more to be done. It's too much to list here, so surf on over to the listing and check it out.
While it may need a lot of work, it does run, and the seller says a local will be able to drive it home without towing.
Check it out here if you're looking for a project car that's already able to run and drive, at least a bit.
[Images: Seller]
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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.
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A Shelby Daytona was the donor car when turbo II'd by Caravan.
In the early 90's getting ride of the automatic was easy in many cars.
These looked the business when new, but were easily dispatched at the green light by a 5.0 Mustang or 5.7 Z-28. The turbo 4 was laggy and shook like a paint mixer as the revs climbed and front drive K-car architecture was never intended for a sporting car. That was camouflaged with some meaty Gatorbacks but these fell to pieces at the limit. A total poser car, no wonder they didn't last long.
Skip the 1988 and hold out for a 1990 -- the wheelbase grew by 5 mm. 😉
I test drove one of these, and it had, hands down, the absolute worst seats I've sat on/in. I messed with the adjustments for a long time without any success. My previous title for worst seats went to my stepdad's Delta 88. I wouldn't have believed seats could be more uncomfortable than the Olds's were, but Mopar came through.