T2#056. Dodge Shadow

T2#056	Dodge Shadow
real name	Direct Connection Shadow Turbo
source photo status	from Internet
vk post	https://vk.com/wall-170914_939

I got my No. 56 by unwrapping a wrapper in March 1990. It was so cold, dank and dreary outside, as it could only be in Kupchino before lunch on Saturday. My parents went somewhere on business, and my grandfather and I stayed at home, because we didn't want to go for a walk or even go to some museum at all. He was reading a book, and I was adding a new insert to the collection.

The car, which looks most like an eight of the average between egg and mustard body colors, did not particularly impress me at first, but the liner as a whole looked unusual — as if it were transparent and weightless. Now I would say “ephemeral". And the name also attracted attention.

— Grandpa, do you know a Dod-ghe car like this? — I still remember that question.

— I do not know the Dod-ghe, but I have seen the American Dodge. — My grandfather did not fight at WW2: He met the victory at the age of 15, because of the war he was able to graduate only from the 4th grade. In 1944, he became a tractor driver, and then worked all his life as a driver on trucks and special equipment. He also happened to drive American equipment that had returned from the front.

— But it says "Dod-ge Sha-dov", some kind of not very beautiful name ... - I persisted.

Grandfather just shrugged his shoulders and returned his thoughts to his book. I now began to look at the egg-mustard Dodge much more closely: for some reason, one of its headlights was completely green, and the second was darkened, like its windows, in addition, it had a very low and sharp bumper with fog lights, extended arches, rear spoiler and a huge hump on the hood.

— Was that Dodge a good car?

— Very good! — Now I can see how my grandfather remembers and compares the sensations of Dodge-3/4 and GAZ-AA (with about the same effect now you can compare RAM 1500 with Lawn Next — these are just different types of cars). Grandpa returned to his book, and I continued to look at the inserts in my still small collection. In those days, my absolute favorite was the Aston Martin Vantage. It was a completely natural choice of my mind. With Dodge, everything is more complicated, from the realm of something implicit, hidden and hidden. I'm still peering at his "blind", foggy headlights with some anxiety. Oh, you're not simple, Shadow!

About the car

Dodge Shadow and its badge-engineering identical brother Plymouth Sundance could share the title of the most ordinary American vehicle except with the Ford Tempo/Topaz pair. But mediocrity is the lot of production cars, and the T2 #056 insert presents a real specially built prototype. Oh, what an opportunity the Turks missed to write “Ozel Yapim”!

This defiantly yellow car made a lot of noise in the mid-80s, appearing on the pages of not only American but also European publications. The bet on a bright color and a very simple but spectacular exterior tuning turned out to be a winning one. An ideologically similar domestic car VAZ-21106 “Yellow Shark” immediately comes to mind, the same recipe and the same effect.

The car with the liner was created by the sports department of the Chrysler company — Direct Connection in 1986. The show car differed from the standard Dodge Shadow ES by a whole list of elements that changed not only the appearance, but also seriously affected the dynamics of the car. For example, a turbocharger with an intercooler was installed (it was because of him that a charismatic hump on the hood had to be built), all springs, amortizers and stabilizer bars were replaced with stiffer ones, work with the suspension allowed the car to be lowered by an inch, and the use of wider Goodyear Gatorback P225/50VR15 wheels determined the spectacular expansion of the wheel arches.

In October 1986, the American magazine Motor Trend tested the show car and gave a very positive verdict on both dynamics and handling. Quote:

“The handling is exactly as expected: a tendency to understeer and a completely predictable reaction during sudden changes. The car clearly has built-in stability, which allows you to throw the car into almost any turn at any speed, and the only punishment for violating acceptable boundaries will be the demolition of the arc outside with a clear decrease in speed and return of control.”