The first AVS Shadow was this lowline prototype built for the 1970 Canadian-Amercian (Can-Am) challenge. It was unusually low and captured the attention of Road & Track who put it on their cover and called it the "most radical Can-Am yet". Others have called it the ‘go-kart’ or ‘roller-skate’. The car's creator, Don Nichols called it “the two dimensional car.”

Called the DN2 or Mk3, this Shadow was an upgraded version of the Mk2 with enough detail differences to warrant a new model type. Both cars were designed by Peter Bryant. As driven by Jackie Oliver, the cars failed to achieve success with both its naturally aspirated and turbocharged Chevrolet engines.

In 1974 Jackie Oliver became the Cam-Am champion driving one of these DN4 Shadows. It replaced the DN2 of 1973, and kept the same basic engineering. The DN4 was particularly suited to embrace the fuel restrictions that limited overall fuel consumption to 37 gallons. The DN4 was so good in this category only George Follmer in another DN4 could challenge Oliver.