The Dodge Omni was a front-wheel drive, subcompact car introduced by Dodge inn North America in 1978. It was a five-door hatchback. The last year of production of the Omni was 1990.
The first Omni was powered by a 1.7 L OHC engine, which was sourced from Volkswagen. The small Volkswagen engine used an enlarged Chrysler-designed cylinder head and intake manifold, and produced 75 hp and 90 ft-lb of torque. This engine was beautiful in its simplicity. There was a lot of room to allow one to service the engine. Oil changes were easily made. Parts were cheap and. Omnis haven't changed very much since their '78 debut, so parts are very interchangeable, whatever the year.
There was a lot of room inside this little economy car. The instruments were housed in a narrow vertical console, with two large circular pods inside, one of which included a tiny ammeter, oil pressure, and temperature gauge in a triangular formation. There was no air conditioner. The seats were fairly comfortable. The rear compartment with its lift-up hatch carried a lot of stuff, despite its deceptively small appearance.
In 1984, the Omni GLH was launched. It was powered by a 2.2 liter engine, making 110 hp. It was mated with a 5-speed transmission. Due to its slightly reduced weight and its reduced aerodynamics, the GLH hit 0-60mph in only 8.7 seconds, and had a top speed of 106 mph. The GLH went out of production in 1986. The final 500 GLH cars were sold to Shelby, who used them as the basis for the 1986 Shelby GLHS.
