12. Dodge Omni GLH
For the better part of the ’70s, Shelby stayed away from the automotive business. The muscle car era was gone, Ford closed its racing program, and it looked like Carroll was out of work. He concentrated on some other ventures, including his famous chili products. However, when Lee Iacocca, his old pal from Ford, took over Chrysler, Shelby got an invitation to return to the performance game. But this time, it was under new circumstances.
While Europe was embracing the hot hatch class, developing it further in the mid-80s, America seemed quite uninterested. The Golf GTI sold well in the states. But the domestic manufacturers didn’t produce any models that could be considered hot hatches. But then the legendary Carroll Shelby teamed up with Dodge and introduced his version of the compact Omni model.
They called it the Omni GLH and it was a proper hot hatch. It was also one of the best affordable performance models money could buy in those days. Nobody expected Dodge could produce a hot hatch that could beat their European competitors. But with Shelby’s help, they did just that.
Shelby took the 2.2-liter four-cylinder and added a turbocharger to produce a total output of 175 HP. And the 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of fewer than seven seconds was impressive and highly competitive for the day. Of course, the Omni GLH had some suspension modifications and other bits improved so it could handle all that power.
But the best thing about this car is the name GLH, which meant “Goes like Hell.” Shelby and Dodge produced an improved version they called the GLHS. That stood for “Goes Like Hell S`more.” And they made just 500 of those models.