She completely sank into the abyssthe Horizon. Replacing the Simca 1100 in 1978, it incorporates many elements, including the engines and running gear. Dressed in England by Roy Axe, it was voted car of the year 1979 under the nose of Fiat Ritmo. Although the Simca Horizon, quickly renamed Talbot, sold rather well in France, we are often unaware that it is a “global” car.
Indeed, it is also offered across the Atlantic under the names Dodge Omni (entry-level) and Plymouth Horizon (high-end). Equipped with a 1.7 liter VW engine of 64 hp (it’s not much, but the strict depollution in the USA then reduces the power), it also enjoys its small success. Note also that it benefits from a front suspension with McPherson struts, while the European retains the old superimposed arms inherited from the 1100.
In addition, Chrysler equips it with a variant unknown to us, a coupe called 024 also powered by a 2.2 l 84 hp. Nothing too violent. But now, Lee Iacocca (to whom we owe the Ford Mustang) has been president of Chrysler since 1978 and calls on an old acquaintance who did a lot to boost the Mustang, un certain Carroll Shelby ! His mission? Add spice to the American Horizon (not the European one, which now belongs to PSA), more precisely to This version of the Dodge Omni.
Shelby has already taken care of the 024, which he renamed Charger and of which he completely revised the running gear and pushed the 2.2 l to 110 hp in 1983. In 1984, the same treatment applied to the Omni, whose variation reworked by Shelby was called GLH (for Goes Like Hell, which can be translated as “walk of the fire of God”).
Passing 100 km/h in less than 9 seconds, it beats the VW Golf GTI local. But the best is yet to come. For a little more fun, the Omni GLH gets a turbo in 1985, to develop 148 hp. It exceeds 190 km/h, but if the Chrysler group stops the GLH in 1986, Shelby still wants to have fun.
That year, he bought the Last 500 copies and fiddles with them in his workshop which he reopens for the occasion. And there, bam, the power jumps to 175 hp (and the torque to almost 240 Nm) on the GLH-S evolution. It is then the most powerful sports compact in the world but also in history, after the end of the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus which still pushed the joke to 160 hp.
The Omni isn’t kidding, passing 60 mph (96 km/h) and 6.5 s. The American magazine Hot Rod pitted it against a 1965 Shelby Mustang GT 350, and the Omni humiliated it! Shelby even suggests that his Omni is faster than a Ferrari 308. It was the first compact to match a supercar, well before the Audi RS3.
For its part, theOmni standard will last until 1990while the European Horizon, which will never be entitled to a sports version, will stop in 1985 in France (1987 in Spain), replaced by the Peugeot 309, which was initially to be called… Tablot Arizona.
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