Dodge Omni GLH
While Europe embraced the hot hatch class and developed it further in the mid-80s, America seemed entirely uninterested. The Golf GTI sold well in the States. Still, domestic manufacturers didn’t produce any models that could be considered hot hatches until the legendary Carroll Shelby teamed up with Dodge and introduced his version of the compact Omni model (via Car and Driver).
It was called the Omni GLH, a proper hot hatch and one of the best affordable performance models money could buy those days. Nobody expected Dodge could produce a hot hatch that could beat its European competitors. But with Shelby’s help, it did just that. Shelby took the 2.2-liter four-cylinder and added a turbocharger to produce a total output of 175 HP and 0 to 60 mph time of fewer than seven seconds, which was very impressive for the day. Of course, the Omni GLH had suspension modifications, and other bits improved so it could handle all that power. Only 500 of those models left the factory.