Cars & Vehicles Trucks

1989 Shelby Dakota—the one-year wondertruck.

1989 Shelby Dakota—the one-year wondertruck.

Say what you will about Carroll Shelby, but one thing you can’t accuse him of is “decal engineering.” No siree! When ol’ Carroll came up with a package you knew the cojones went in before the name went on. Carroll and Chrysler had any number of successful performance front-drivers; the Shelby Rampage, Shadow-based CSX and Shelby Dodge Daytona are just some that come to mind. ‘Course Shelby went where the money was, but his heart was really into V8 rear drivers.

Shelby got the chance to follow his heart, as it was, but with Dodge rather than Plymouth. The project was based on the 1989 2-wheel-drive shortbed Dakota. By then, pickups had moved from serving as utilitarian haulers to an “in” form of transportation, the sportier the better. And who knew more “sport” than Shelby.

Adding his signature cojones to the package was fairly easy: pry out the Dak’s stock top engine—the 125-horse 3.9L V6 and drop in Chrysler’s 318 (5.2L) TBI V8. An easy fit except for the belt-driven cooling fan. That was easily fixed by adding twin electric fans to the front of the rad. The stock 318 minus the power-robbing pulley-driven fan netted 175 hp @ 4000 rpm with 270 lb-ft @ 2000 rpm. Not bad for a start.

Backing the V8 was a new 4-speed overdrive lockup high stall speed converter transmission. At the time, it was said to be one of the most complex trannies ever produced by Chrysler. An auxiliary trans cooler helped durability.  Out back, more innovation (for a truck): a Sure-Grip 3.90 81/4” axle.

That plus a new rear-wheel ABS that worked with a speed sensor, ECM and pressure-limiting valve.

1989 Shelby Dakota—the one-year wondertruck.

The Shelby Dak was no slouch in the handling dept. Starting with the V6 Dak’s sport suspension, the Shelby folks added gas shocks and hollow-spoke style 15x6” alloys wearing P225/70R15 Goodyear Eagle GT+4 high performance radials. A very well-rounded piece indeed, the Dak ticked off zero to 60 mph times in the 8s, ran the quarter in 16.5 at 82 mph and topped out at 113 mph. Not earth-shattering until you realize this was for a 3610-lb truck, and no other truck at the time could touch it.

Production was limited to 1500 units—1000 red and 500 white.

Joe Massey stepped up to the plate with $16,670 in hand to buy a white Shelby Dakota #1116 new. Joe owns a small collection of high-quality Mopes, the Dak became part of his collection rather than a driver. In the nine years that he owned it, the truck had barely rolled up 1000 miles. At that point, Joe decided he’d make better use of a bass boat than a Dakota that just sat under a car cover. Joe’s nephew, John Braxton, Jr. had peeked under the car cover a few times and drooled over the truck, which his uncle made him clean up.

John asked to buy the truck and his uncle sold it to him for $12,500, plus another grand for the never-installed Shelby Performance Kit (P/N 4529979) that’s now out of production.  John took out a loan for the purchase, and his wife Carol never understood his making payments on a truck he rarely drove. Sure, they’d take it to church and a car show or two but not much else. John says it was a major event when the odo clicked to the 10,000-mile mark.

But it was a balance between keeping the Dak under a cover and enjoying it now and then.

1989 Shelby Dakota—the one-year wondertruck.

Rather than keeping the Dak pure stock, John figured some changes were in order—nothing crazy like a 20” lift and 30” wheels or fuzzy dice or those really cool spinning wheel covers that make the truck look like it’s rolling at 60 mph while standing still (Ehrenberg has ‘em on all his rides).  First order of business was to install the Shelby Performance Kit. The package comes with a throttle body for the 360-cube engine.

John had to remove the 318 throttle body, stuff rags into the intake and open it up a bit with a die grinder to give the butterflies necessary clearance. The 318 injectors reinstall as 360 squirters would run too rich. A replacement engine controller does its thing with recalibrated fuel and spark curves. The final item is a Flowmaster low-restriction muffler which John said required a trip to the local muffler shop. “The mods make a big difference in seat of the pants feel. I now can light up the tires from a roll,” he says. The redline also is moved a bit north of the stock Shelby 4750 rpm.

At 14,000 miles the original tires showed the tread worn down halfway. John removed the stock rollers and stashed them, not wanting to risk his welfare on 20+-year-old tires. He had the hots for American Racing Shelby Type S1 18x9” wheels for the Mustang. But would they fit? An engineer/draftsman by trade, John had all kinds of computer programs at his disposal and he crunched the numbers for the backspace.

Heck, we would have just used a big hammer. Turns out, the wheels with the 24mm offset fit perfectly, but with only about ½” clearance lock-to-lock. John says this is the largest wheel you can run on the front. He had to mill the inside of the front center caps to allow clearance for the dust cap on the rotor. The wheels come embossed with the “Shelby” name which is cool. John wrapped the rims with 235/50ZR18 Goodrich G-Force T/A skins all around.

So you’d think these days John’s Shelby Dakota experience would be limited to an occasional car show with daughter Jessica and son Eric providing free labor in polishing, waxing, blowing the dust off the Dak and kicking errant showgoers foolish enough to lean or put fingerprints on the Dak. But you’d be wrong. See, John also has a red Shelby Dakota with 200,000 miles that he’s rebuilding with big-valve, ported and polished 360 heads for the 318 block.

And that should make for even more surprises on the street than the original Shelby Dak did back in ’89.

 

Base MSRP Dakota 2WD Shortbed= $12,052

 

Factory options included:

            PW7                Bright White Clear Coat Paint

            ADPA01         Heavy Duty PKG Suspension

            DGNA01        A500, 4 Speed Auto Transmission

            DSAA35         Axle Rear-3.90:1 Antispin, Corp. 8.25

            JBFA01           Black instr. Cluster & Trim

            SN9B31          Springs Front 2500 LB. Cap.

            SN9B41          Springs Rear    3000 LB. Cap.

 

Shelby Extras = $3,933

            5.2 Liter 8 cylinder engine W/ EFI

            High Stall-Lockup Torque Converter

            Aux. Transmission Cooler

            Air Dam with Fog Lights

            Bumpers- Front – Black & Step Type Rear with Shelby Scuff Pads

            Gauges: Fuel, Volt, Temperature, Oil Pressure and Trip Odometer

            Mats- Carpet W/ “Shelby” Logo

            Molding –Black – Windshield, Sill, and Full Wheel Lip

            Radio –AM Stereo/ FM Stereo Cassette- Electronic Tuned W/ Digital Clock

            Seats – Deluxe –Shelby Monogram Cloth and Vinyl W/ Center Armrest

                        Hinged Back

            Shelby Monogram Door Panels

            Steering Wheel –Shelby Signature, Leather Wrapped

            Tape Stripe Graphics – Shelby

            Wheels – Cast Aluminum – Hollow Spoke 15”x6.0”

            Tires 0 (5) P225/70R 15

            Light Bar

 

Subtotal =                   $15,985

Destination Charge= $685

Total Cost                  $16,670

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