Anyone remember this little bugger? The base model Omni was a mpg champ in it's day. Then along came a Texan named Caroll Shelby and he did a little tweeking to this little thing and a special model was created called GLH or goes like hell. Here was a four door hatchback that could do 0-60 in about 6 seconds in the early to mid 80s and get epa rating of 19 city and 29 hwy. The base model got around 30 city and 39 or 40 hwy.
I new a kid in high school with an Omni. He had to fuel three times a week because he could never get more than three gallons in the tank at a time. One would think he could get better mileage but he was a jock and about the same size and shape as the car.
We had the conventional Omni/horizon which I would call a GLS "goes like snail." It was good for us for about a year until my wife got T-boned on the way to church.
I knew a lady who had an Omni GLH "back in the day". It was black, I don't think I ever personally saw one that was another color. A highschool friend had an ORANGE "normal" Omni, and man did he drive the h*ll out of that car. I always liked the "Omnirizons". They were space efficient and simple, and much better cars than the POS 83 Escort I had, and arguably better than the Rabbits they closely resembled. A older lady down the street from me had one until a few years ago when she traded and got a strippo Corolla CE. Wasn't there a "GLHS" that came after the GLH, that was even faster and more outrageous?
http://www.allpar.com/omni/GLHS.php Yep, they did make a GLH-S in both the Omni and the Charger, a two door hatchback version of the Omni. It was amazing. Here was a car weighing about 2,200 lbs with 175hp engine, capable of doing 0-60 in about 6 seconds and a quarter mile in about 14 seconds for less than half the price of bigger name but not faster cars. It could also pull 89 g forces. It was Dodge/Chrysler's first front drive model. Interesting note was that Consumer Reports initially reported problems with the Omni's handling but was found out later that they did a high speed manuver and took it off the road and onto the dirt and grass. Kind of makes you wonder if they did this intentionally out of a bias against front wheel drive cars (this was 1978).
