shelby csx vnt 053 in Tumwater, WA

[Fox]

listed for 800$ anyone here get it ?

[Joe Anderson]

Yes,I picked it up today.

Its rough but fixable,and came with some extra parts.

Have enough parts around here to put it back together ..... should be a fun project .

Car number 53 ( very early vin number 617180 ) was used in house by Shelby,and was the press car till late 1991.

Kicked around through dealers till 1993,and finally ended up in a auction in southern Oregon.

The car is rumored to be the Special Shootout 153 MPH Motor Trend car,thus fighting against Corvetts / Mustangs / Camaro.

Wonder what Shelby did to make this car so much faster?

The owner I purchased it from said " It Screamed " ( could hardly keep on the road ) !

Anyone have any input,or additional history ???

Thanks,Joe

[ShelGame]

I might have a copy of that (or at least a similar Daytona) cal...

[88C/S]

That cal for a 2.2 only, or can it be used with a 2.5. Good save Joe!

[SL#189]

I was watching that ad, along with another CSX for sale in Issaquah (and Rampage) - great catch!

[Joe Anderson]

Bump to the top....
For any history or info towards 89 CSX-VNT #53

Thanks,Joe

[Shelby]

I'm curious about that cal. Any info on boost or power output?

[Joe Anderson]

I ordered the Data Cable from Shel-Game,and will soon know what makes this car tick.
Was also told that this car should have had the speed limiter removed,and some more spark advance.
Will be interesting to see the full race binary code,and compare with a stock vnt cal.

On another note,I suspect that it could have the very rare Shelby limited slip.
Some of the in house PR Test cars,and Team Shelby race cars got this rare option.
Was offered in the Shelby Catalog,and very expensive ( not sure what it was based on ).

A full exam will be done to document this car.

Did notice in the Motor Trend article (: showed wide tires mounted on the car,but Shelby records list as standard tire's with Recaro.The car still has the original wide tires,so we will be checking for the wide tire Rack ( could have been installed later for the 1989 Motor Trend article ).

[Fox]

pretty cool, cant wait to hear more about it, how many miles on it ? must not be too much if it still has the original tires

[85shelbycharger]

That's a pretty cool find! Any other pictures of it in its current condition?

[glhs571]

Just an FYI I was on fwdperformance and Cindy is selling a rear bumper for the 89'csx if you don't already have one.

[Joe Anderson]

Just sent a email about getting the rear bumper,wonder if they had the ground effect piece too?

[BadAssPerformance]

The car is rumored to be the Special Shootout 153 MPH Motor Trend car,thus fighting against Corvetts / Mustangs / Camaro.

Wonder what Shelby did to make this car so much faster?

Joe, Glad you saved it! Should we move this thread to the "Project Log" section?

As for history of the MT teat car... at an SDAC convention, maybe SDAC-8? for got which one! Anyways, several years ago, and Tim P was our guest speaker... apparently the car for the MT article has an motor issue after getting passed around to other media/mags and they had to fix it before the MT review. There was am engine sitting there that had been fitted with all production parts, that had been matched a little nicer than typical production tolerances... you know, when you get a pallet of pistons and find the 4 that all matched weight so they are still technically stock parts So at least part of the recipie for MT article car was a nice (stock) balanced completely stock motor making stock HP plus 3 sigma tolerance

[Joe Anderson]

One of the things on my to do list.... was to make sure the engine and A555 had the right vin#'s stamped.
That would solve some of the mystery.

The vnt computer is already in the process of being decoded,for any special code.

They did say in the Magazine Article,that the Speed Limiter was allowed to be removed.

[cordes]

This will be really cool if it is the car from the article. Talk about a good candidate for saving.

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ETA: If they would have built a hybrid trans they probably would have won.