Someone wrote to me that this is an "AGS Competition Shadow."
I vaguely remember hearing about "AGS Competition" Shadow, but it's a distant memory. I read Dempsey Bowling's page - he wrote it back in '02 - and he described the option code as "ANA" and that the only "competition" shadows were bare-bones no-option cars (to remain light). I spotted something that yellonoma wrote in another thread that the ES Shadows came with the vnt engine as well, but did the ES Shadows come with the same hardware improvements that the "ANA" optioned cars came with?
Those options, according to Dempsey Bowling's pages, were described as: Special Sport Suspension (w/front and rear sway bars), Ultra High Performance 4-wheel disc brakes, "firm feel power steering" (higher steering gearbox ratio, I presume), performance exhaust and rear spoiler.
This car I'm checking out seems to be in excellent condition, but it's been painted and I can tell that the finish isn't as good as the factory (which wasn't stellar either), and he said that they didn't remove some of the cladding for the paint job. I can also see some surface-corrosion on underbody parts, and I'm worried that it might have worse corrosion in the UNseen parts. So I'm not so sure that I should be paying the near-$4,000 asking price. (It's been a northern car all its life, yet garaged and taken care of during winters, according to present owner)
And another question (if y'all don't mind) -- with the vnt computer being so specifically tuned for those variable nozzles, is it safe to assume that there aren't a lot of performance improvements to be had?
I thank you all for your attention and input!