THE Rarest 'Cuda on Earth!?!

This really is the rarest 'Cuda on the face of the Planet Earth! Just 1 of 2 built, and the only one known to have survived!

The 1985 Plymouth 'Cuda was a test for Plymouth to try and develop a sister car to the Dodge Shelby Chargers of the 80s. They used many off the shelf parts from the Charger and the Mopar Performance book to complete the look.

Unfortunately it did not take, and the cars were quietly moved on. One went to the current owners father, not turning into a barn find like most others. But was safely tucked away in his garage. The Red car was donated to a Trade School in Ohio. Some gossip says it was crushed. Others say it might be tucked away somewhere. If you know, let me know!

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[FordPickUPRed]

I had the 1985 Charger Shelby. Same car. It left me on the side of the hwy 3 times, but I still miss it.

[roccoelleto]

I had a 1985 Omni GLH Turbo 5 speed. Loved that car. Would run with a Mustang GT and handle like a Corvette back in the day. Nice ride.

[garyslentzii]

My dad had the Dodge Shelby Charger, it was always in the shop. Later on, l got an 87 Plymouth Turizmo Duster, great car as long as you don't beat it & use it for common transportation. It was a pretty good car for me at the time paying child support. Cheap & very reliable.

[FernandoChaves]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. I had a Shelby back in the 80's, this brought back a lot of memories. I spent a lot of time with my Direct Connection catalog.

[Stang]

I love all the cry babies on here because they used the Cuda name. These cars with a super 60 kit made over 300hp and 300 ft lbs and weighting under 3000 lbs. I’m a huge Mopar nut worked for them over 20 years and seen these cars in FWD form with home made stuff in the mid to low 10s and out running the 440 and yes mighty HEMI. No it’s not true to beloved Cuda of the past but that’s all we had in the 80s.

[picklesontheroad]

I had an 85 Shelby Daytona in 1986. I got it for cheap because the owner thought he blew the engine. After replacing the timing belt, I drove it back to his office to give him his car back, but he didn't want it. That car to me, was the end of old world mechanics and the birth of modern day "techs". It had far more technology stuffed into it than the American Automotive world understood at the time. Digital dash, factory alarm system, "self troubleshooting ECU" that could be read out through the dash, power windows, power mirrors, power seats, ect. Every last one of those new tech gizmos were nickle and diming me to death! Finally, I got fed up with it. I took it out on the road, held the pedal to the floor and after about an hour of full throttle driving, the turbo exploded at a very proud 152 MPH. It went to the scrap yard after that.

[Fleetwoodjohn]

Most wouldn't give this thing a second look even knowing what it is. We have all heard about rare HEMI's and other cars our entire live's so this is something different. The fact there is so many archive photos of it at the plant to document the history makes this story so much more cool.

[motownrockerusa]

I had a 1985 Shelby charger. It was burgundy with silver stripes. It was a lemon. They had to replace the bottom end. They had a lot of issues with that 2.2 turbo engine. Thankfully Dodge took care of it under warranty. I will say one thing, it was a very fun car to drive. And it was a good-looking car for the time.

[christopherprince]

Owned a '85 Shelby Charger in black and silver. Fun to drive. Very interesting post. Thanks.

[terrydover]

These cars with turbo had a lot of top end😮

[MichaelTrivisonno-he]

I had the Charger version of that car. It was a lot of fun to drive!!!

[oldsjetfire]

Despite what people like to say about the 80's cars, it was actually a really interesting time of automotive history. The move to digital era, the big three built some cool stuff. Sure, most stuff was not fast like we wanted them to be but still some really cool stuff for what they had to work with.

[alanrobinson]

GLH = "Goes Like Hell", not "heck".

[Happy_guy_]

I love this 'Cuda and yes that is exactly what it is. People forget that in the old days, many more of the '70s 'Cudas were built with the Slant Six or a 2 barrel 318. Both of which this '85 'Cuda could pass fairly easily. It would take a 340, 383 and above to pass this machine!

[WhiteKnightCutlass]

My mom bought a brand new 85 charger which is almost identical to that car, but hers was a auto, once it hit 50, 000 miles it started giving us all types of problems, that was in the mid nineties, I bought it off her for $500 did a full tune up, timing belt and it still would run perfect for some times 5 minutes or some times 5 days then it would stall, cut out miss, then just come out of it and run fine, so then put a new distributor in it, and it still did tge sane thing, and finally put a ridiculously high priced carburetor on it and it ran better but still not right, and in about a year and it started doing the same thing again so I sold it for $500, it was absolutely perfect inside and out, gray on gray garage kept since new, she never drove in snow and rarely even in the rain, there wasn't as much as a scratch on the outside, and a absolute perfect interior and it has a lot of options, you definitely don't see them anymore

[CJEFF]

Cool car ! . The 2.2 and 2.5L turbo was a great engine . My first brand new car I purchased was a 93 Dodge Shadow. Loved that car and was so easy to oil changes with the oil filter right on the front of the block . Didn’t even have to jack the car up to drain the oil . Five ⭐️’s to the engineers who designed those engines .

[ericbitzer]

Love seeing this. Takes me back to the early 80's.

[MikeJBlues]

1983 I purchased a brand new Turismo 2.2 in St. Louis . Loved that car. Bought it off the delivery truck when it pulled in when I was looking in their lot. Dorn Chrysler Plymouth I think it was back then.

[lastrdayray]

Didn't know they made them. Great channel!

[mmmadog]

I owned atleast 10 of the Shelby Dodges including several that where limited to 500 each. They where budget cars built by Dodge and Shelby. Mitsubishi had nothing to do with these cars till the very last run where they put v6 in them. They where fun fairly fast and easy to work on. A friend just did a timing belt on his 1989 caravan with the turbo and a 5 speed.