These were hot little cars back in the day, and they’re still pretty cool now.
Racing is a lot of things to a lot of people. For some, racing is all about having the newest, fastest, best equipment on track. For fans of vintage racing, however, it’s often the opposite.
If you’ve found yourself pining for the glory days of motorsports, there’s a good chance you’ve looked into vintage racing. I certainly have. It’s thrilling to see historic race cars do what they do best instead of sitting quietly in museums or stashed away in someone’s collection.
It doesn’t take long, however, to figure out that vintage racing is a rich man’s game. Vintage racing doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive, though. For example, take a look at this 1981 Dodge Charger we found for sale here on RacingJunk. Located in Nampa, Idaho, this Charger was allegedly built by a Shelby American engineer to go SCCA ITB racing back in the day. It’s available for just $6,500, and includes a ton of spares to get you racing. Not a bad way to dip your toes into the world of vintage racing.
While this four cylinder powered front wheel drive car is a far cry from the legendary Dodge Charger of the 1960s and early 1970s, it’s well known that these early ’80s FWD Mopars can handle. If anyone knows how to make that happen, it’s a Shelby American engineer. Shelby built the very best variants of these cars, with exceptional models that could hang with contemporary Mustang GTs and Camaro IROC-Zs from stoplight to stoplight as well as on a road course.
As someone who campaigns a four cylinder 1980s hatchback (albeit a rear wheel drive car), I can tell you that cars like this force you to become a better driver. Even the best cars of this era had a fair amount of body roll, and the small tires with tall sidewalls won’t hold a candle to the latest version of the Michelin Pilot Sport. You learn to make your lines as smooth as possible, carrying as much momentum as you can to make the most out of the limited power available. That said, racing a car like this is a lot of fun – and a great way to preserve history.
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