White fiberrides?

[Shelby Guru]

OK, well congrats to everyone in this thread in getting me out from under that rock! John Bond (my boss at the time and YES, the son of John Bond Sr. who started ROAD & TRACK Magazine) was driving around a white 1989 CSX Styling Vehicle with a set of "factory" fiberides that were also white. The 225/50/15 Gatorbacks were only about 6 months old and in great shape. For "whatever" reason, someone decided to remove them from that vehicle. After sitting around the shop for about 3 weeks, I called my friend Tim Hoover and demanded is credit card info. I told him to "Trust" me and that I was going to charge about $500.00 on his card. I told him he would be happy "when" the package arrived. He was!

There were about 10 to 20 "factory" white fiberides produced from Motorwheel for various projects around the country. There was NO Chrysler Part Number ever issued for White Fiberide wheels. The majority of white fiberides that I have seen, were painted by someone other than Motorwheel. BTW: That wheel won the Most Innovative Use of Plastics Award in 1988. Another tidbit of info is: The typical Alloy Wheel has to survive a destruction test of 1 million cycles to be approved. Since, Shelby was the first to use a composite wheel, we set the standard at 4 million cycles. The one thing you never want to do to a fiberide wheel is....PAINT the Lug Nut Seat!

[CSXVNT257]

That is awesome information. Lynn might be a great source as a salesman do you recall the rides being sold in white?
i would love to know if there is a deeper story to the white rides. Any chance of getting a picture copy of the part book?

Sorry to disappoint. I was a salesman and later a service writer/manager, but the dealership I worked at did not sell the Whittier cars. IIRC, Hallmark Dodge had the Shelby franchise in our area.

I assume you know there are/were silver Fiberides? I believe Tim Pettijohn had an 87 CSX prototype with them. I do not know if they were original that way or painted.

Lynn Travers

[turboshelbys]

Maybe the set I bought from the dealer were extras? Either way it is cool to get some back story on these. Does anyone else with White or Gold fiberides have serial #'s on them like mine? My Gold fiberides do not have any.

[turboshelbys]

Interesting story just sent to me about the white fiberides:

"

Hello. Thank you for posting these. There may be a story behind them.... There was a car back in the late eighties (not the one currently claimed to be the Autoweek magazine car - It's not!) that was owned by Shelby's photographic/PR vehicle manager. The car was the original CSX photographed in Highland Park Michigan's design studio. The car was solely designed for public appearances and photo opportunities and appeared in the 1989 Autoshow tour along with several ads/magazines. The company that maintained the car was the now defunct Creative Industries Group and they also handled nearly all of Chryslers show/PR cars like the prototype Viper and many others. After touring use, the car found its way back in the hands of CIG and was eventually stolen from the Chrysler Highland Park Development lot in 1991/92. The car was found but numerous parts were stripped. The investigation showed that the rims found their way to Texas. Do you know the origin of these rims? Thanks so much "

[turboshelbys]

some more info:
I still have a few documents and photos of the car in various forms.
The photos are from 1988 near the Highland Park HQ's and I have read the insurance claim papers after the car disappeared.
The contractual build agreements to build the press/show car could be located should they ever truly need to surface and several remaining engineers are aware of the vehicle, including the personnel that handled the vehicle coordination. In fact, the cars were constantly rotated between the Shelby facility and Chrysler which was much like a shell game, so to speak, of which one went where, why and where they remained when the program was cancelled. One fully equipped (3-way suspension/16V) surfaced and remained in the Chrysler engineering facility where it later found itself part of 568 transmission development. The car was badly abused during those years and was finally crushed in the mid to late 90's.

In all, there were over 7 of these vehicles built and two of them I personally partook in engineering efforts and testing.
Not all of them were trimmed out with the adjustable suspension and 16V, as the plan was to determine what could realistically be offered to the general public, at a reasonable cost.

In short, the press car was the best looking vehicle for obvious reasons.
All of the additional cars that were tested, abused and suffered parts scavenging as the program died, thus the reason why the Shelby auction car was a disaster when purchased in the early 90's.

Good chat'n with you.

[moparloper]

turboshelbys, are you selling the fiberrides pictured in post #12, because they look just like the ones on Ebay right now http://www.ebay.com/itm/DODGE-TURBO-...0da879&vxp=mtr

[turboshelbys]

yes they are up for sale

[mopar-tech]

Half a mind to toss a bid on them, would look cool on the Reliant.

[turboshelbys]

Half a mind to toss a bid on them, would look cool on the Reliant.

For you Gary,I'd cut you a deal. give me a call when you get the chance.i am gonna need help with my 66 barracuda formula s

[mopar-tech]

For you Gary,I'd cut you a deal. give me a call when you get the chance.i am gonna need help with my 66 barracuda formula s

Tempring... drop me a PM

[musqlar55]

Tempring... drop me a PM

Just saw a set on Ebay for BIN price of $1000.