Shelby Truck???

[Hooty]

Okay,
I guess I am just not too informed on this. Were there dodge/shelby trucks that were made? apparently early 90s, possibly late 80s? I saw a white dodge today that had black striping and shelby on it. Front grill had shelby in the grill too... Anyone care to educate me as to their existence? And it had a V8 badge on the side.

-Will

[BadAssPerformance]

You saw a 1989 Shelby Dakota. Shelby made red and white ones both with the same black stripe package. A couple pics of them up on www.sdac.org

[Murphy]

http://www.xmission.com/~dempsey/shelby/sheldod8.htm

[BigAl]

Shelby also worked on a Ram but it never made production.

[BigAl]

there was also this prototype twin turbo 360 powered Dakota.

[cordes]

Wow that TT dakota would have been crazy!

[Hooty]

Yup, that's it. It was in nearly mint condition too, it looked fantastic. Sounded good too.

-Will

[tryingbe]

I think the only thing it has performance wise was a electronic fan vs mechanical fan.

[contraption22]

I think the only thing it has performance wise was a electronic fan vs mechanical fan.

Yup the 89 Dakota 5.2 put out about as much power as an 89 2.2 CSX.

[Charger R/T]

They didn't have much get up and go. But around that time the ground work was laid to put a V-8 in a truck that wasn't full size. I don't remember if the shelby branded trucks were the first of the V-8 trucks or came soon afterwards. But up until around that time all you had was a choice between 4cyl and V-6. I always wanted one of the convertible Dakota trucks they made around the same time.
Tim

[GLHNSLHT2]

The Shelby was the first V8 to be put in the Dakota. You could get a V8 a year or two later but I believe the redesigned the front end to be able to do it. The electric fans were put in because there was no room for a regular fan.

[turboaddict]

the convertible dakotas werent a shelby, but cool none the less

[ScottD]

The Shelby Dakotas ran pretty strong up to about 50-55mph then I felt they ran out of breath. I had a very nice 89 Shelby Dakota for eight years. To say the only thing they had performance wise was an electric fan is not really accurate. They did have the 318 V8 which was not available in a regular production Dakota until 1991. They also had a 3.92 rear, which I'm not sure if that was available in other Dakotas as well. The electric fans were due to space limitations and with those fans the Shelby Dakota got 5 more hp, up to 175. The V8 was a big step up from the 125hp 3.9 V6 that was otherwise the top option for the Dakota. The Dakota convertibles only came with the 3.9 V6 which leaves a little to be desired powerwise. It isn't bad with a manual transmission, no rocket by any means but my 90 Dakota Sport 3.9 V6 5speed w/ 3.55 rear doesn't feel that bad now that I have it running correctly. I've towed my Spirit R/T with this truck with no problems, while it doesn't run at 70mph like a Cummins diesel Ram 2500 does, it did fine for me keeping it at 55mph (I don't like going faster than that with a tow dolly anyway).

[tryingbe]

I've towed my Spirit R/T with this truck with no problems, while it doesn't run at 70mph like a Cummins diesel Ram 2500 does, it did fine for me keeping it at 55mph (I don't like going faster than that with a tow dolly anyway).

Good for you. I hate it when people towing stuff and go like 5-15 mph OVER the speed limit.

[moparman76_69]

I so want one of those....... I know where a ram is sitting

[junk yard jon]

shelby dakota's are nice. i pass up one to buy a 90 dakota convertible. i'm swapping in a 360 mag. sense i'm gonna repaint it, i was thinking of getting the shelby stripe package for it. the fan was electric. there's only about 3 inches between the motor and the rad.