While in-your-face high performance variants of pickup trucks are nothing new today, in the late 1980s it was still a decidedly novel concept. So when legendary performance tuner Carroll Shelby turned his attention to the Dodge Dakota in 1989, Car and Driver jumped at the chance to take a look at this new breed of truck.
Following his successful racing career, in the early 1960s Carroll Shelby was focused on modifying production cars to significantly enhance their performance. The Shelby Cobra was born when he transplanted a Ford V8 into the British AC Ace roadster. Shelby went on to develop a deeper partnership with Ford, including modifying early Mustangs to create high performance icons.
Lee Iacocca was Shelby’s patron at Ford, and when Lido wound up at Chrysler, Carroll Shelby wasn’t far behind. Initially, Shelby focused on massaging L-Body Dodge Omni/Chargers and later Dodge Daytonas, Lancers and Shadows bore his name. But while FWD turbos are fine, for a guy like Shelby there was always the lasting allure of a high-powered RWD V8. However, there were no suitable RWD car platforms available—even Shelby couldn’t have done much with the ancient Dodge Diplomat at that point. But there was a newly developed RWD platform at Chrysler, it just happened to be for a truck.
The mid size Dakota pickup was a genuine Chrysler innovation, offering more room than smaller competitors like the Chevrolet S10, while being more maneuverable than larger trucks such as the Ford F150. Not a bad concept for the fuel conscious 1980s, and a good way for Dodge to get a piece of the truck market without directly challenging Chevrolet and Ford in two of their most entrenched segments. Though the workhorse Dakota was typically fitted with a utilitarian V6, there was room available for more, and that’s where Ol’ Carroll came in.
To be fair, Chrysler already had a nice history with high performance trucks. Even when the Mopar brigade could barely rub together two nickels, they managed to create some very interesting special editions. For 1978, the Dodge Ram truck was massaged into the highly potent L’il Red Express—it was actually the fastest vehicle tested by Car and Driver that year. As a truck, it wasn’t subject to CAFE requirements, so the focus could truly be on its go-fast potential. However, the second oil shock of 1979 put a kibosh on the fun, and by the time Lee Iacocca went hat in hand to Washington DC to seek a bailout, high performance was gone…
…But not forgotten. As soon as it was feasible, Shelby arrived at Chrysler and worked his magic to inject some genuine sporting credibility into the mix. While creating hot hatches was the 1980s version of high performance fun, there was more magic at Mopar to be unleashed. The Dakota was the perfect place to stuff a V8, and thus a new generation of sport trucks was born.
Even by the standards of the day, the Shelby Dakota was not that quick. At 8.7 seconds from zero-to-60, the sport truck would be left in the dust by cars like the Ford Mustang LX 5.0. But it was a truck, not a car, so for its size and purpose it was fast, and the power was delivered in a raucous old-school muscle car style.
Shades of the 1960s: seeing the flat bench seat in a muscle machine brought to mind Road Runners of another era. Like the Road Runners, the Shelby Dakota was reasonably affordable, especially for the performance on tap. The all-in price was $16,498, which would be $31,683 in today’s dollars.
Oddly, in spite of its potential, the Shelby Dakota was just a one-year wonder. Not for lack of sales or desirability: all 1,500 units built for 1989 were snapped up, and unlike regular Dakotas, many were kept for their potential as collector’s items. Likely Carroll Shelby’s health was a factor—he had a heart transplant in 1990, and so probably wasn’t too focused on high performance trucks during that time… But Chrysler’s competitors were. Both GM and Ford saw the potential and introduced highly specialized high performance variants of their trucks.
The Chevrolet 454SS was introduced for 1990 and featured special colors, upgraded suspension and a 7.4L V8. Produced for 4 years, Chevy sold 16,953.
The compact GMC Syclone raced in for 1991 featuring a turbocharged V6. Like the Shelby Dakota, it was a one-year-only model, but the GMC sold at nearly twice the volume, with 2,995 finding homes.
Ford’s Special Vehicle Team massaged the F150 to create the SVT Lightning for the 1993 model year. Race driver Jackie Stewart was involved with the performance and handling development and the truck boasted a modified Windsor V8. The SVT Lighting sold 11,563 units in its first three years on the market.
Though the super-high-performance sport trucks have come in and out of the market in fits and starts since 1989, the genre that Carroll Shelby kicked off is still hauling ass today. Nice snake bite indeed!
Of all the factory – built hot trucks, I think I would want the Fords most of all.
Whenever I see one of those SS454 trucks, it always looks pretty well used up….though that might be mostly due to the washed-out black paint job.
+1 I always had a thing for the first gen Lightning, it’s a happy medium between the raided out toughness of the 454SS and the high tech low slung sportiness of the Syclone.
I never cared for the soap are styling of the GMT400 era trucks either, and this was the last F series generation I liked that also slants my bias. Plus the 454 was merely a standard transplant from the heavy duty variants, whereas the 351 in the Lightning had all the upgrades(heads, cams, intakes) the SVT mustangs had, consequently the displacement advantage of the 454 doesn’t mean it’s actually quicker.
454 SS was kind of overrated. As I remember, the performance wasn’t really all that…a Ford 351 or Mopar 360 wasn’t too far behind it and for what muscle you gained, the mpgs were absolutely atrocious. The REAL appeal was bragging rights. Still, I would imagine a mint one is worth a few $$.
I had one. It was pretty fast, though the 454 was indeed straight out of a dually. The Ford Lightning with it’s high performance 5.8L was very close, but the Ram 360 with TBI (had one of those too) was a dog.
Yea the TBI 360 was barely an upgrade to the 318. A bit more torque is all. The Magnum engines on the other hand are WAY underrated. They’ve been surpassed by the 3-gen Hemi but on a bang for buck level, its still more cost effective to swap a 360 Magnum into your project.
Oh man did I want one of those when they came out. As a teenager in the 80s, I was all about Mopar musclecars and none of the turbo Ks that Chrysler was trying to peddle did it for me; I wanted a 2 door, V8 anything with a Pentastar on it and finally, there it was. I guess I wasn’t the only one, since in 1991, when the Dakota got a styling refresher, the nose was lengthened a bit to accommodate the 318 as a regular factory option that could run a conventional mechanical fan. Then in 1992, when the 230 HP MPFI 318 Magnum came out, if optioned the right way, you could have a Dakota that would run with 5.0 Mustangs, and then of course, later on the Dakota R/Ts came around with factory 360s. They were some neat little trucks and the Gen 2 Dakotas were a really nice balanced package. Unfortunately, the third gens were just too big and too expensive to be considered an alternative to full size trucks.
A Shelby Omni… I forgot about that one.
The Shelby name is prominently plastered on this in 160 places from my count, thanks especially to those “tasteful” seats and door inserts.
The 67 GT500? 6. And the script is about 3/8″ x 1″ at it’s biggest, largely dwarfed by the rest of the little emblem it inhabits
Don’t forget that although the pony cars of the late 80s were faster, the Dakota V8 had more torque than a Mustang GT. That was the stat that always stuck out in my mind as a car obsessed teenager.
I remember when these came out…stuffing a V8 into a ‘smaller’ truck was something only backyard hotrodders did. Caused quite a stir. At the time, lowered minitrucks were all the rage, but were usually powered by 4 or 6 cyls and slathered in childish neon pink ‘barf splatters’ and neon lights. While S-10s with warmed over 4.3s were considered pretty heady sfuff in these days, I can just imagine the reaction when someone showed up to a truck meet in one of these. The 318’s numbers seem modest now, but in the late 80s anything sniffing 200 hp was considered hardcore.
It was more than backyard hotrodders but not much more. Auto shop at the high school where I retired had a kid that did that in class. sbc into a 80-90 something S10. IIRC it was quicker and faster than the turbo 4.3 that a classmate had. But to your point, you are right. The factory job was reallly something. Chevy could have done that easily but did not.
Cool truck indeed, but the closest I have seen to a Shelby Dakota is a Convertible Dakota. I hope to find a Shelby Durango someday.
My brother bought one of these new. Sticking the 318 in them (supposedly an M-body police version with Holley TBI instead of a Quadrajet) took a little doing. The radiator was moved forward a bit and fitted with an electric fan to clear the longer V-8. I was told that these trucks were built with 3.9L V-6’s, Shelby did the engine swap. The ’91 Dakota was redesigned to take the 5.2L with no modifications, and the V-8 was a regular option from that point on.
The Dakota shared it’s front suspension and steering with the first gen viper (cost saving) so they handle very well and with a few mods are almost astounding. As mentioned the Shelby took a back seat when the magnum 318 came out a few years later.
Dodge kept making performance trucks as mentioned while not a special edition the magnum v8 versions were really fast. They also offered the ram sst and later then Dakota RT. An aftermarket company also made a redo of the little red truck using dakotas and their own bed in the early 90’s. I have actually seen quite a few of these for some reason, both at car shows and a few actually working for a living and rather beat.
Or does that explain the Viper?
I remember reading about these and the convertible version in 1989, it looked like a well-executed concept with the sports bar or whatever you want to call the addition behind the cab even if it wasn’t fast. Holden’s performance offshoot HSV would soon be copying this for their hi-po Maloo ute.
little red express truck please!!!
One of my favorite memories of travelling to California in 1989 was seeing 2 car carriers full of Shelby Dakotas heading north on I-5 in northern California. I wish I was able to afford one back then (24 years old, broke, (now ex-)wife intent on redlining the credit cards plunging us into debt…). I remember Shelby offered a performance upgrade kit for the Dak–new ecm, 360 throttle body, and a Flowmaster muffler (plus instructions on how to bore out the intake manifold to fit the 360 tbi). Nowadays, I think a 5.7 hemi swap would make things interesting. I’d still love to have one-anybody wanna trade a 2008 Ram 1500?
It surprised me to find one in the Shelby museum here in Las Vegas. I’m not sure I expected them to consider it part of the brand’s heritage.
I had forgotten all about these. Kind of cool in a very 80’s way. I think that the pick of the litter of the late 80’s early 90’s sport trucks would have to be the Cyclone from a performance standpoint, though I did also always like the original Lightning.
There is a Shelby Dakota not two blocks down my street. It is used as a daily driver and is parked on the street. Regardless, it’s well cared for and sounds awesome when it passes by!