File:1988 Dodge Shelby Dakota Prototype, front right.jpg

English: A 1988 Dodge Shelby Dakota Prototype. From Carroll's personal collection and offered for sale at the 2018 Greenwich Concours d'Elegance. From the Bonhams blurb:

Offered in 1989 only as a limited-production high performance variant of the Dodge Dakota Sport mid-size pickup, this was the first rear-wheel drive product to come out of Shelby workshop since partnering with Chrysler Corporation.

Like the Shelby products that had preceded the Dakota, the drivetrain received a plethora of upgrades. Gone was the 3.9 liter V6 of the more mundane pick-ups and instead a 5.2 liter overhead valve V-8 was shoe-horned under the hood. Due to the limited space available, the engine driven fan mounted on the front of the motor had to be removed in favor of electric fans, with a beneficial side effect of an added 5 horsepower. The total output was an impressive for the day 175 horsepower and 270 ft-lbs of torque, just about a 70% increase over the stock V6. The pickup also received a limited slip differential, transmission cooler, 5-spoke hollow alloy wheels, and a slew of body mods including a unique air dam and bumpers. For what started life as a utility vehicle, a zero to sixty time of 8.5 seconds was an impressive figure for 1989, and only Dodge's previous performance truck, the Li'l Red Express, offered this level of performance in such a rugged package.

The 1988 Shelby Dakota on offer is the prototype version of the future production vehicle. Being a prototype, the truck has unique, one-off design and performance elements throughout. Aside from the more obvious cosmetic differences, the prototype sits on a modified suspension system which results in the truck sitting much lower than the production version. The body hovers over a wide set of Elite 5 spoke aluminum wheels wrapped in massive Goodyear Eagle ST rubber. Under the hood, performance parts are everywhere, including the Direct Connection intake setup and Eldebrock performance valve covers. With less than 15,000 on the clock, the truck's one and only owner, Carroll Shelby, has kept it in excellent condition.