Still glowing after a week... Can't wait till april!

[Guest weezilusa]

I just wanted to say that a week later... I still can't believe how much fun last weekend was.

I worked in the pits last year, and even that was a blast, but driving, well it definitely took it to the next level.

Our car was definitely not ideal in the wet and I found my line on Saturday was to have the car sideways quite often... Sometimes without really choosing and with other cars in close proximity... Sorry if I got a little close. Also had a late night spin on Saturday and hit somebody and lost our rear bumper in turn 7... not sure what car we kissed though it all happened so fast.

Sunday definitely was a lot more fun as things dried out and things were going faster. We suffered from some random issues and ended up going through 4 fuel rails over the 18 hours of racing... weird problem to have, and found that the one that was on there at the end of the race was also leaking.

Anyways, I had a blast sparring with nearly all the teams out there, and just wanted to say thanks for such a fun race. A few specific shout outs:

The Peugeot finished the race... Great job guys! That was really impressive, second only to the Minivan.

That Minivan brought me right back to my childhood... Anybody have any of the specs on that baby? I'm guessing it was the turbo powerplant with a 5 speed? Awesome.

Is it April yet?

Cheers,

Ben

[Guest Stefan Mullikin]

Ben, the minivan was a 2.5L TBI powered van with a 5-speed. Nothing magic from what I could see other than really good prep work and smart driving. I loved the hood pins holding the hatch in place. I believe the folks (The Muellers) running it also ran it at a Lemons event as well. The Mueller's are a big part of the EESCC autocross scene in and around Eugene and aren't strangers to the world of the Chrysler 2.2/2.5L powered vehicles.

Our Red/black Shelby CSX was the only turbo powered Chrysler there and while we had our own share of problems it was at least was quick in a straight line, the open diff really hurt us coming out of the corners though. It was either spinning the inside tire or bogging from too little boost/too much gear. Oh well, at least we finished! Which was better than last year and everyone had a great time and is looking forward to April.

I think the owner of our Shelby has a turbo 5-speed van that he was going to scrap (he used it to tow the Shelby to the track last year, heh). It might end up going to another team member to put together for next year. We'll see. Maybe next year will be the year of the minivans? LOL

[Guest Methius]

I think the owner of our Shelby has a turbo 5-speed van that he was going to scrap (he used it to tow the Shelby to the track last year, heh). It might end up going to another team member to put together for next year. We'll see. Maybe next year will be the year of the minivans? LOL

If you have a Turbo Mini-van... I want it.. badly!

[Guest posnova]

If you have a Turbo Mini-van... I want it.. badly!

Stefan can hook you up with one I guarantee. His affinity for Turbo-K products scares me. I remember that van. It's gold colored, and still has the word "turbo" pinstriped on the fender. I remember it donated parts to keep the csx alive, or was it a turbo shadow or something in '09. Either way, the tow-vehicle was also a parts vehicle. Pretty funny.

[Guest Stefan Mullikin]

If you have a Turbo Mini-van... I want it.. badly!

Well, get a hold of Doug Folsom (Shelby CSX (DD) team) and see if he'll give it up (Dirtydrifters on da google-mail)

Plus there is a local Shelby-Dodge club chapter that might have leads on interesting cars or parts:

/>http://www.pnw-sdac.org

Join the mailing list and send out some feelers, there's at least one guy who hits the Speed's towing auctions regularly looking for neat stuff.

Plus there's Terry Ryan who built the fastest stock block turbo minivan (12.59 in the 1/4 on a 2.5L SOHC with a 3-speed auto) out in Cascade Locks, he's a good source of info on turbocharging in general as he's also from the Buick V6 turbo ranks (held the record for the fastest stock block turbo buick, heh). I think he's playing with a Dodge Magnum right now, and playing in his band.

[Guest Stefan Mullikin]

Stefan can hook you up with one I guarantee. His affinity for Turbo-K products scares me. I remember that van. It's gold colored, and still has the word "turbo" pinstriped on the fender. I remember it donated parts to keep the csx alive, or was it a turbo shadow or something in '09. Either way, the tow-vehicle was also a parts vehicle. Pretty funny.

Yeah, we stole a few parts off the van to keep the Shelby running. If we hadn't split the clutch disc in half with an hour to go (we didn't determine the car was a no-go until 30 minutes later) the car would have finished the event last year.

Heh, I grew up with the K-cars and helped start the local Shelby-Dodge chapter. Grandparents had a 79 Omni with the VW 1.7 and auto, called it their "puddle jumper" Grandma used it for her Avon runs. Uncle Mike bought an 84 GLH (black) brand new and autocrossed/hill climbed it nearly immediately after purchase. Used to swap plates with the Grandparent's car to get his dual weber'd GLH through DEQ, heh.

Another Uncle bought an 83-1/2 Shelby Charger (Silver/Blue) that saw track day/Daily duty, eventually went to my cousin for his first car and was totalled when a drunk driver hit it coming home from Christmas one year. Always liked that car and the color scheme on it.

My older brother bought a Shelby Charger Turbo (Blue/Silver) and then an 86 GLH-S (black) and a GLH-T (Red). Then I started driving and bought my 87 CSX and after it failed, inherited the older brother's Shelby Charger Turbo (Blue/silver) before selling it to my Dad and then bought another one for myself (Black) and then sold that one to my older brother for a race car project. That Shelby Charger (black) was turned into a road race car and last I heard had been sold recently as a ready to race SCCA/ICSCC car. I also owned Dan's Red GLH-T for a bit and a silver one that I bought for an Ex, which ended up with Dad as a car for his girlfriend. Finally bought a Dodge Rampage and drove that for a long while before giving it to the co-founder of our local Shelby-Dodge Chapter.

At this point, we only have my CSX and Dad's turbo minivan and Uncle Mike's GLH in the family. My teammate, Doug, has an IMSA International Sedan CSX-T that I owned briefly before giving to him. That car was owned by the president of Thrifty and then eventually owned and raced by the guy I bought my CSX from. Not sure if that IMSA car will ever see the track again, its had a hard life and is basically a shell at this point. Doug also has a GLH-S and two GLH-T's plus the two CSX race cars and his turbo van. I think one of the GLH shells is going to one of the club members to replace a worn out shell of their own.

We had thought about painting our ChumpCar back to the original black and the IMSA car back to white and running them both as a theme of Spy Vs. Spy. but then we'd hate to see the IMSA car get wrecked like our ChumpCar did when a Honda dive-bombed us on Saturday. Doug recently tried to sell the IMSA chassis, but no one seemed interested.

Sorry about the hijack....

[Guest posnova]

I grew up with the K-cars

The Kancer runs deep. Lee Iococca would be proud.

[parid]

That Minivan brought me right back to my childhood... Anybody have any of the specs on that baby? I'm guessing it was the turbo powerplant with a 5 speed? Awesome.

Yup as mentioned eariler it's just the 4 banger n/a drivetrain. They had some pretty minimal suspension mods to get it back down lower where it should be. They have a couple races (and a hill climb!) on it now and the motor is definately tired. They made all their time in the corners.

Their team is a great example of how good prep, KISS, experianced drivers, great mechanics, and the right attitude pays off. They were up to 8th on sunday at one point (before some injition wiring issues).

[Guest Stefan Mullikin]

Here's the shirt they need:

http://www.bustedtees.com/minivan

[Guest Stefan Mullikin]

The Kancer runs deep. Lee Iococca would be proud.

Yeah but now I'm playing with Porsche 924's after a brief stint playing with Fiats (the tetanus shots were too expensive though, heh)

[Sead]

Yeah, we stole a few parts off the van to keep the Shelby running. If we hadn't split the clutch disc in half with an hour to go (we didn't determine the car was a no-go until 30 minutes later) the car would have finished the event last year.

Heh, I grew up with the K-cars and helped start the local Shelby-Dodge chapter. Grandparents had a 79 Omni with the VW 1.7 and auto, called it their "puddle jumper" Grandma used it for her Avon runs. Uncle Mike bought an 84 GLH (black) brand new and autocrossed/hill climbed it nearly immediately after purchase. Used to swap plates with the Grandparent's car to get his dual weber'd GLH through DEQ, heh.

Another Uncle bought an 83-1/2 Shelby Charger (Silver/Blue) that saw track day/Daily duty, eventually went to my cousin for his first car and was totalled when a drunk driver hit it coming home from Christmas one year. Always liked that car and the color scheme on it.

My older brother bought a Shelby Charger Turbo (Blue/Silver) and then an 86 GLH-S (black) and a GLH-T (Red). Then I started driving and bought my 87 CSX and after it failed, inherited the older brother's Shelby Charger Turbo (Blue/silver) before selling it to my Dad and then bought another one for myself (Black) and then sold that one to my older brother for a race car project. That Shelby Charger (black) was turned into a road race car and last I heard had been sold recently as a ready to race SCCA/ICSCC car. I also owned Dan's Red GLH-T for a bit and a silver one that I bought for an Ex, which ended up with Dad as a car for his girlfriend. Finally bought a Dodge Rampage and drove that for a long while before giving it to the co-founder of our local Shelby-Dodge Chapter.

At this point, we only have my CSX and Dad's turbo minivan and Uncle Mike's GLH in the family. My teammate, Doug, has an IMSA International Sedan CSX-T that I owned briefly before giving to him. That car was owned by the president of Thrifty and then eventually owned and raced by the guy I bought my CSX from. Not sure if that IMSA car will ever see the track again, its had a hard life and is basically a shell at this point. Doug also has a GLH-S and two GLH-T's plus the two CSX race cars and his turbo van. I think one of the GLH shells is going to one of the club members to replace a worn out shell of their own.

We had thought about painting our ChumpCar back to the original black and the IMSA car back to white and running them both as a theme of Spy Vs. Spy. but then we'd hate to see the IMSA car get wrecked like our ChumpCar did when a Honda dive-bombed us on Saturday. Doug recently tried to sell the IMSA chassis, but no one seemed interested.

Sorry about the hijack....

Wow, and here I am thinking we are crazy to even bring our red 85 Dodge Omni to PIR this past weekend!

Sead

[csadn]

I think I saw a Chrysler Laser|Dodge Daytona for sale on Baseline a while back -- wonder how well that K-car would run....

[rcruz]

Here's the shirt they need:

http://www.bustedtees.com/minivan

thats a cool shirt, but the minivan will give way to the next race vehicle in a year or so. but here are the specs on the van for those that want to know. its a bone stock 2.5 N/A as mentioned before. the trans is out of a glh that we got from a junk yard. its hard to find a glh trans at a wrecking yard but we did it. the trans was bad when we got the van. the front suspension mods are nothing more than cut stock springs. the rear has an axle flip to lower it, then had to put blocks between the leaf springs and the body to fine tune the ride height. the stock rear shocks were remounted due to the axle flip and they work great. as for the van itself, we took out anything that was not needed, and i mean everything. the doors were nothing more than an outer skin, the sliding door was stripped down to absolutely nothing, you can't even lean it on something or it will buckle. we had to lighten it as much as possible due to the low HP engine. thats about it and it seems to work very well, especially in the corners.

[Sead]

thats a cool shirt, but the minivan will give way to the next race vehicle in a year or so. but here are the specs on the van for those that want to know. its a bone stock 2.5 N/A as mentioned before. the trans is out of a glh that we got from a junk yard. its hard to find a glh trans at a wrecking yard but we did it. the trans was bad when we got the van. the front suspension mods are nothing more than cut stock springs. the rear has an axle flip to lower it, then had to put blocks between the leaf springs and the body to fine tune the ride height. the stock rear shocks were remounted due to the axle flip and they work great. as for the van itself, we took out anything that was not needed, and i mean everything. the doors were nothing more than an outer skin, the sliding door was stripped down to absolutely nothing, you can't even lean it on something or it will buckle. we had to lighten it as much as possible due to the low HP engine. thats about it and it seems to work very well, especially in the corners.

Is there a good online resource for these Chryslers drivetrains? We're trying to figure out what n/a motors, transmissions, clutches/flywheels will fit into our Omni. It would be good to know what we can look for in junkyards to make a decent setup and have spare parts. Is the 2.5 interchangeable with the 2.2? What about transmissions?

I've checked out allpar.com, but it doesn't tell me any of the useful nifty stuff that junkyard surfers need.

[KLR142]

thats a cool shirt, but the minivan will give way to the next race vehicle in a year or so. but here are the specs on the van for those that want to know. its a bone stock 2.5 N/A as mentioned before. the trans is out of a glh that we got from a junk yard. its hard to find a glh trans at a wrecking yard but we did it. the trans was bad when we got the van. the front suspension mods are nothing more than cut stock springs. the rear has an axle flip to lower it, then had to put blocks between the leaf springs and the body to fine tune the ride height. the stock rear shocks were remounted due to the axle flip and they work great. as for the van itself, we took out anything that was not needed, and i mean everything. the doors were nothing more than an outer skin, the sliding door was stripped down to absolutely nothing, you can't even lean it on something or it will buckle. we had to lighten it as much as possible due to the low HP engine. thats about it and it seems to work very well, especially in the corners.

How'd you get so much camber out of it? I can't remember what the suspension looks like on them, but I do remember looking at them and thinking, "man, these things suck for performance handling". Haha, seriously though, I'm quite surprised that's all you guys did with the suspenders, and amazed at how well the thing did! Awesome! Lightening goes a long way I guess when you have so much extra junk inside... My parents had a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen Caravan as I was growing up. I know I messed around with lightening the 3rd gen when I was 16 and "mobbing" around in it...

Do you have pictures anywhere?

[Guest Stefan Mullikin]

Is there a good online resource for these Chryslers drivetrains? We're trying to figure out what n/a motors, transmissions, clutches/flywheels will fit into our Omni. It would be good to know what we can look for in junkyards to make a decent setup and have spare parts. Is the 2.5 interchangeable with the 2.2? What about transmissions?

I've checked out allpar.com, but it doesn't tell me any of the useful nifty stuff that junkyard surfers need.

I'll poke around in my links, but I can tell you that looking at 1st gen Rabbits can provide some ideas.

The 2.2 and 2.5 are essentially the same block after 1989 and more or less physically the same before that.

If you poke around, you'll see folks running Neon heads on the 2.2/2.5 blocks and some are swapping the entire 2.0/2.4 drivetrains as well.

Oddly, a good source for non-turbo mods is the old Mopar FWD book.

I'll PM you more info as I find it.

[rcruz]

How'd you get so much camber out of it? I can't remember what the suspension looks like on them, but I do remember looking at them and thinking, "man, these things suck for performance handling". Haha, seriously though, I'm quite surprised that's all you guys did with the suspenders, and amazed at how well the thing did! Awesome! Lightening goes a long way I guess when you have so much extra junk inside... My parents had a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen Caravan as I was growing up. I know I messed around with lightening the 3rd gen when I was 16 and "mobbing" around in it...

Do you have pictures anywhere?

one of the guys on the team is our mopar guru. he has random knowledge that just spills out. he is the guy that figured out what will work and sent us into wrecking yards in search of. as far as parts info, i have no idea what he used but my local auto parts store has a website that has dimensions and specs for all parts and a neat feature that will tell you what other vehicles use that same part number. the camber angle, could you beleive 3.5-3.7 degrees and used every bit of it. i beleive the strut bolt holes are wallered out to make that possible. the camber required is compressing the axle past its happy point and broke an axle on saturday that cost us about 15 positions. we are currently searching for an axle from the mopar parts bin that will work.

i have no idea on the pics. we didn't take any and forgot all about the in car.