The Shelby Dodge Durango SP360 Is an Obscure Ultra-Quirky 1990s Fast SUV

this is a 1999 Dodge Durango Shelby SP 360 and it's absolutely amazing back in the 90s Dodge and Shelby got together to make only 300 of these High Performance Dodge Durango models with a body kit and racing stripes and a big 5.9 L V8 with a supercharger this car you've never heard of unless you're really into obscure performance SUVs or obscure Shelby Creations today I'm going to review the Durango SP 360 and show you all of its quirks and [Applause] features before I get started big news this Shelby SP 360 is currently for sale and it's being auctioned live on cars and bids this really is an amazing vehicle and this has to be one of the nicest ones in existence it has less than 11,000 M and it's almost completely unmodified and it's a fantastic example of this ridiculous rare creation so once you finish watching this video click the link in the description below to visit the live auction for this Shelby SP 360 where you can bid on it and buy it only on cars and bids all right I'm going to start the quirks and features of the Shelby SP 360 with a little explanation of what this is because you're are probably curious as you should be so the Dodge Durango this was Dodge's family SUV and it came out for the 1998 model year with two available engine choices there was a 4.7 L V8 that was standard with 235 horsepower or you could upgrade to a 5.9 L Magnum V that's what they called it with 245 horsepower the bigger V8 didn't have much extra power but it had a lot more torque for towing but neither was enough for the man himself Carol Shelby who decided to make a highperformance version of the Dodge Durango I have no idea why although possibly because saline was making a high performance version of the Ford explore at the same time so it seemed logical and thus the Durango Shelby s p360 was born it had the larger 5.9 L Magnum V8 but it was supercharged and power went from the stock 245 horses to 360 in the SP 360 hence its name also got a big torque boost to about 415 pound feet of torque these numbers may not sound like that much but you got to remember this is the old days the late '90s before there ever was a p porsa kayen a BMW X5 an Audi rsq8 Lamborghini orus Bentley Benta Grand Cherokee trackhawk none of this stuff existed back then this thing for its time was a beast and it did 0 to 60 in the high 6C range which was a really fast time for an SUV especially a big one like a Durango now in the end this dodge and Shelby creation only produced 300 of these cars just 300 in existence which makes them tremendously rare and they all had this color scheme which is blue with two white racing stripes obviously that was a call back to the Dodge Viper GTS blue with white stripes which had recently been on sale and to previous Shelby models this paint Scheme he was known for like the Shelby Cobra blue with white and of course the Shelby Daytona same deal it was an iconic Shelby color scheme and fitting in with that lineage the Durango and believe it or not the upgrades to this car were surprisingly significant considering it was a high performance version of the Dodge Durango that they were only making a few hundred of up front you can start to see the changes over the standard car you had a front lip spoiler like a body kit up front that went way lower than the regular Durango and it also included this mesh front grill and fog lights at Each corner plus the word Shelby imprinted to the very bottom center of the body kit it transformed the look at the front of the Durango now that looks pretty cool but a little bit less fortunate let's say is the hood which was different in the SP 360 it had these two power bulges they were also air intakes you can pull in the air except they're not actually air intakes they're completely closed off and fake which is a bit of a shame but it did help the car look more aggressive and exciting also a little bit disappointing in the looks Department the wheels which I always felt were kind of the low point of this car they sort of look like '90s aftermarket catalog generic Wheels you wanted to throw something nicer looking on your Camry you got wheels just like this sort of chrome twisty five spokes it didn't really fit in with the design or look of the car in fact they didn't even have center caps with the Shelby logo or the Dodge logo or anything else so they really did look like generic add-ons even though these were the factory wheels for the SP 360 now apparently sensing that this might be an issue Carol Shelby's signature appears on the wheel so that adds a little bit more legitimacy and a little bit more coolness to an otherwise not entirely great design anyway on the subject of exterior changes we then move down the side of the car where you can see the side skirts the rocker panels which again are lower and more aggressive than what you get in the standard Durango and on the subject of lowering it you can see they've removed the roof rails which came standard on the Durango and they instead replaced it with a blue painted panel that's riveted or actually just screwed in place where the roof rack mounting points would be the benefit here is it made the car look lower and the design look more slippery a family SUV you take to the mountains on a ski trip would have roof rails this well this is a perform perance SUV and so it didn't need that extra visual height and they took them away finally we move around to the back of the SP 360 where you see a few other changes of course the racing stripes continue all the way down the rear of the car which looks pretty cool I suppose you also have a lowered rear bumper back here completing the body kit and completing the lowered look of the SP 360 it looks pretty cool and pretty aggressive at least for a '90s Dodge UV and you have dual exhaust back here custom dual exhaust that were only on the SP 360 and believe it or not they actually sound pretty good let's take a listen to some Dodge Durango SP 360 [Music] revs now one interesting component to the outside of this vehicle was the usual approach that Dodge and Shelby took to badging the SP 360 specifically you have no badge in the rear that mentions what this is Dodge nope Durango nope sp3 it doesn't have anything nothing on the back that says what it is however on the windshield you have a massive Shelby decal going across the entire top of the windshield which I believe was original you look up pictures of other SP 360s they all have the Shelby windshield decal so I guess they put it on all of them they debadged the rear for subtlety and then they went big Shelby on the windshield you do have one other badge which is on the side of the SP 360 you can see it here it's on both front doors driver and passenger side and there's also even a little supercharged badge to let people know what they're up against now a lot of cars that do a limited edition limited production run especially in the 9s especially for an SUV it looks cool but it's all just cosmetic it's meant to turn heads look neat help people buy more of them but it didn't actually add any performance that was pretty common in this era but it was not the case with the SP 360 like I said you had the 59 V8 which was the most powerful engine offered in the Durango stock was 245 horsepower this thing had a supercharger to bump it up to 360 horses and when you look in here you can see the big name pen and Bell supercharger right there on the top yes and then it's printed again further back the supercharger brings us the power and the wine on the side in the engine bay you also have the Kenny Bell Optimizer computer which doesn't quite sound or look as cool as the Kenny Bell supercharger but it's there to optimize the computer you also have one other big name under the hood which is caution f f for some reason that is printed just as large as the as the supercharger brand they really wanted to caution you about the fan now the other thing that's worth pointing out under the hood is this is where you see one of the plaques that identifies this as a special Shelby SP 360 you can see it here it's individually numbered this is vehicle number 33 strangely 0033 even though they didn't make more than 300 of these they got room for four dig and you also have the Shelby logo which is sort of like a racetrack looking thing that says CS for Carol Shelby that helps you understand just how special this is when you open the hood so the Shelby SP 360 it had much more aggressive and different styling compared to the standard Durango and it add a lot more power compared to that supercharger but a lot of times when brands do those things they don't do anything in the interior to improve things but that's not the case here either because the interior of the SP 360 has been upgraded and you notice it immediately when you climb inside and see the seats this has these racing bucket seats they're pretty tight especially on the back rest where you can see they kind of curve in to keep you in place when you're tossing your Durango around on the racetrack you also have Carol Shelby's signature on the back rest here sort of embroidered into the central black leather panel in between the gray on the sides and you even have cutouts for a racing seat belt at the top of the seat to add even more high performance driving Credence and capability to the SP 360 now all of that is pretty impressive and pretty nice and it does make you feel sportier in here but the especially impressive thing about this interior is the back seats are the exact same you have two racing buckets in the back as well precisely mirring the front seats again the B string on the sides of the back rest again the Carol Shelby signature the two-tone leather and even the cutouts for racing seat belts if you wanted to mount a harness in the back seat for your rear passengers so they stay in place when you're going around the racetrack now it's worth pointing out the Durango was a three row SUV and so is the SP 360 and unfortunately you did not get a third row of racing bucket seats instead you had a s standard third row bench seat back here as you can see but to Dodge's credit you did still have the two-tone black and gray leather upholstery that was distinctive to the SP 360 so even the third row was a little more special than what you would have found in your standard Durango and the changes went well beyond just the racing seats one of my very favorite upgrades the carbon fiber apple on the dashboard you can see they just took the standard Durango dashboard and then stuck on carbon fiber look trim basically everywhere they could find except on the airbag because that would rer it useless but everywhere else you have this carbon fiber trim all throughout including some very odd small pieces of carbon fiber meant to cover up the gray plastic that this interior had it's the whole dashboard wide driver and passenger side your carbon fiber Shelby appliques to remind you that this was something special and the carbon fiber continued here into the center console as you can see there's more of it where you also will find a second plaque just like the one under the hood that lets you know the specific serial number of your special Durango number 33 Shelby SP 360 with that cool Carol Shelby logo printed as well just to remind you even if the racing seats don't and the carbon fiber applique isn't enough you can look at the plaque and remember you're in something special now as for other upgrades to the Durango in order to create the SP 360 there are a few other little changes here one you have alcanta on the door panel you can see it right here I can't imagine the standard Durango had that in Period seems like it would have been too nice for the 99 Dodge Durango but the SP 360 has it you also have this warning label that reminds you in very certain terms that you have to put in a certain octane level of fuel or else you will get knocking because this is a high performance optimized supercharged vehicle and regular pump gas will not suffice you got to go super unlet in order to maximize your performance from your SP 360 now beyond all the stuff that I just covered which frankly is a pretty comprehensive update and revision to a standard Dodge Durango especially for only a 300 unit production run but beyond all the stuff that I just covered there are a few other upgrades to the Durango that you can't see one is suspension Dodge added better Performance Suspension in order to improve the handling of the SP 360 and you also had upgraded brakes six piston caliber Brakes in this thing I guess to cope with the extra power considering it's a pretty heavy vehicle so you had upgrades basically everywhere for the SP 360 which honestly is pretty impressive now aside from all of that stuff though you basically had a regular Dodge Durango particularly in the interior where there aren't as many changes as everywhere else yes you had the carbon fiber applique but mostly you had a lot of cheap plastic as was the norm for Chrysler and most brands coming out of the 1990s it's pretty standard kind of cheap family SUV stuff in here as you can generally see when you look around I especially like the power mirror control which is bizarre it's mounted on the driver's door panel and it's this sort of sticks way out you can twist it left or right for the mirror you want to adjust and then move it a giant joystick much larger than every other power mirror control that's how they did it now moving on to the back of the SP 360 you have kind of an interesting situation forming back here because they added the racing bucket seats like I mentioned and that meant they had to figure out what to do with the center between the rear seats because this Durango hails from an era before rear bucket seats were common it was only offered with a rear bench and so the SP 360 had an empty space in between that the regular Durango didn't have Dodge filled that space with this center console as you can see it has cup holders some storage it looks pretty standard but I notice it also has a lot of coin slots now your rear seat passengers don't really need coin slot storage for tolls because they're not driving the car and they won't be paying toll booths so I have to assume that this rear center console was also the front center console from some other vehicle and they just repurposed it but I've checked Dodge's entire 1990s lineup and I can't figure out what car this came from the ram the minivans it wasn't in any of them but you got to assume they didn't make a center console just for the Shelby SP 360 so I assume they borrowed it from somewhere that's especially clear because well frankly it doesn't fit in this space it comes too far forward and that means that it's basically impossible to get around the center console to move into the other side of the rear seat you're basically kind of just stuck in your rear seat because there's there's no easy walkway between the seats since the center console just sticks out too far now other notable items in the back of the SP 360 for one additional carbon fiber trim you can see around the rear door handles on the door panel you get another carbon fiber appli hey same deal over on the other door panel so the carbon fiber and high performance continues into the back seat you also have more climate vents than I think I've ever seen on a midsize SUV rear seat you got four individual climate vents on the ceiling and then another two on the back of the front center console so six total rear climate vents for this vehicle I imagine that was a big selling point of the Durango obviously that wouldn't be unique to the SP 360 it was probably in all of the Durangos but it really does seem like climate overkill for the rear seats but that's what they've done to make rear seat passengers especially comfortable and finally we move on to the cargo area the rear of the Durango Shelby SP 360 you open this up and you can see the space behind the third row nothing particularly exciting back here except there is a giant Pioneer subwoofer in back and it is wired in place this was after all a '90s vehicle and a fairly expensive '90s vehicle and so people wanted their sound and they got it at the expense of their cargo room since it takes up about half of the cargo area back here other than that again nothing particularly exciting although I do like the warning label mounted at the base of the tailgate reminding you that exhaust fumes could come from the exhaust and get into the cabin and injure or damage your body or brain or your life if you leave the tailgate open this is a surprising warning label to see it seems a little Overkill it maybe a little excessively cautionary but it's there as a reminder don't leave the car running and the tailgate open you also have this rather clever little washer fluid compartment integrated into the side of the tailgate you can only see when it's open over on the penger side that's where you stick your rear washer fluid and when it's spitting out rear washer fluid it comes from a little nozzle mounted right here strategically painted white to match the color of the racing stripe since it's inside the stripes area on the tailgate which is a nice little SP 360 touch anyway those are all the changes to the SP 360 compared to a standard Durango it's pretty comprehensive and now it's time to get behind the wheel and drive it all right driving the Shelby SP 360 now despite how ridiculous and obscure this vehicle is I have always loved it and I have always wanted to check it out most people haven't heard of it but I am a weird and quirky car Enthusiast and this is as weird and quirky as it gets and driving this thing I am in heaven okay so first things first the interior is so '90s Chrysler just cheap plastic big panel gaps every Gap has to be curved because they didn't have the ability to just fit everything into tight tolerances in like jagged edges so everything is like rounded at the edge it's just not a great place to spend time but that's part of the charm of this car the Durango was just a normal SUV and this was sort of normal SUV interior and then they made it incredibly cool by making a Shelby version now I will say first thing when you get inside you turn the key it is loud it sounds loud and then you're sitting back here looking out over the hood bulges the fake air intakes uh at these fantastic uh racing stripes and you just think yeah I actually owned a 97 Viper GTS blue white which is basically what this car was trying to emulate in SUV form and honestly the interior is better in this this car but unlike the Viper it doesn't quite have the same sense of occasion uh it's it's still a pretty crazy thing when you're out moving but when you're just kind of sitting in traffic like I am it's an SUV now I will say the ride quality is very '90s SUV apparently they change the suspension which discover a little bit more as I ring it out but it feels like you know it's got a lot of it it bumps and rolls over uh over any sort of bumps on the road you feel a lot of suspension you hear a lot of suspension that was how '90s SUVs were and it was hard for them to engineer it out of it at the time particularly because virtually all these 90 90s SUVs were truck based they were body on frame and that is in fact the case here as well body on frame big V8 I mean this was this was the old school way of making SUVs but everybody was doing it back then all right I'm going to ring it out a little oh yeah it's actually pretty quick it's not really fast well actually it has decent mid-range which is surprising cuz it must be some old four-speed torque converter Auto but it's actually pretty quick to go uh and especially when you when you trounce on it at the in the middle of the power band and it downshifts and kicks it actually has more go than I ever expected that it would and it makes a lot of noise and you feel like you're moving a lot of car and it's got this sort of muscular brute feel to it which is pretty cool I uh I got to say I'm into it plus it's just plain cool I mean this thing you look at it you look at the everything they did to try to really coolify a Dodge Durango and it just feels perfectly '90s I mean every Shelby collection ought to have one of these every blue white Viper Enthusiast should have an SP 360 as a companion car it's just that cool now with that said the steering is actually pretty impressive in this it turns more precisely and more quickly than I would expect there's a little bit of vagueness on Center but a lot less than you would think from a 1999 Dodge Durango I have a suspicion that the regular version you could move the steering wheel about 8 in and nothing would happen here it actually starts doing its thing and moving uh which is pretty impressive they obviously did pay some real attention to the dynamic to this car they upgraded the brakes they upgraded the suspension obviously all the bodyw work the supercharger they really went to trouble to do everything they could to make it a more desirable you know driving car and it certainly feels it and when you go around hard Corners relatively fast in this you would be surprised at how little body roll there is relative to your expectations I'm not saying how little body roll relative to a Modern Performance sports car but relative to your expectations it actually rolls reasonably less and it feels surprisingly sharp truthfully the Driving Experience is actually a lot better than I was expecting it's a lot of fun which I'm shocked to be saying but it's like actually fun to drive it's reasonably quick from a stop or from the mid-range um and it steers and handles fairly well and it makes a great noise and I think it looks kind of cool in like a '90s ironic ridiculous way oh oh it's quick this is legitimately fast I really am impressed with this I I you hear the supercharger sound the thing moves like this is not a bad situation as long as you know what you're going into which is a '90s Dodge Durango you still have the drawbacks of a '90s Durango the interior and the and the rough ride but honestly it is quite an impressive car uh it's fast and it's fun and it's better it's truly better than I expected now part of it is this one has 11,000 miles on it not even so it was it's nice I mean there's not a lot of wear and tear like some of these have some of them were stupidly modified Etc this is so bad and it's kind of fun and it's kind of cool to be totally honest and so that's the Dodge Durango Shelby SP 360 one of the craziest and coolest and most ridiculous and most obscure 1990s SUVs this has to be one of the nicest ones remaining on the planet and you can buy it on cars and bids and now it's time to give the sp36 60 a Doug score and the Doug score is here 47 out of 100 which actually ties the saline Ford Explorer xp8 I reviewed undoubtedly the Durango SP 360's closest rival the SP 360 gets a lower weekend score which makes sense because the xp8 was more fun to drive it looks nicer and it feels a bit more Nimble even though the FP 360 is faster in a straight line but the Durango wins in the daily categories largely due to the added practicality of a third row overall this is a fantastic piece of '90s SUV Nostalgia and Shelby history I've always wanted to review one and I'm thrilled I finally have [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 325,106

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Id: -fZG5rJYJHw

Length: 26min 28sec (1588 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024