The Shelby Dodge
National Convention 4 in Indianapolis, Indiana 6/28/94
On the left at Muncie
Dragway and on the right- DOING LAPS AROUND THE INDY MOTOR SPEEDWAY!! It
was only 3 laps but what the hell.
At Muncie Dragway
I ran oh so close to 13's-the Daytona had run 14.14 at 101mph.
The
start/finish line of the Indy 500 a.k.a."The Brickyard"
The Daytona
was featured in an issue of UP FRONT the newsletter of the
Shelby Dodge club, number 41 if you have a stack lying around and if you
don't here is a copy for your reading pleasure.
Well 1995
proved to be a good year for the mighty Daytona.
July 24,
1995 at SDAC 5 the Z ran a 13.93 at 102mph!
On
the left I'm rounding turn 10 at the Summit Point road course in West Virginia
and on the right a quiet moment before racing at the 75/80 Dragway
in Monrovia, Maryland.
As
you can see on the right the Daytona is sitting up high in the rear because
I'd hit upon the idea of installing air shocks to keep the rear end from
squatting on the launch. Also I was trying out a 2.5 engine this year but
ended up going back to 2.2's due to piston problems inherent to the 2.5's
and poor gas mileage.
At
the Summit Point road course I had blown up my last 525 transaxle. I was
averaging 1500 miles (yes that's right) on a transaxle that was only rated
for 175 ft/lbs of torque and was starting to get mighty annoyed.
Plans where made to install the stronger 520 model as soon as possible.
Its
a good thing I brought a spare tranny along eh?
There was more
work done to the Silver Bullet, a larger cam was installed, a huge fuel
pump was shoehorned into the gas tank and the fuel injection was tweaked
a bit more. On a cool afternoon at Cecil County the wailing 86 Daytona
Turbo Z laid down a 13.34 pass at 108.43mph. On
street tires no less. Who knows what it would
have run with slicks? Not bad for a 3100 lbs car that was daily driven.
I
wish there was a happy ending to this story; but there isn't.
On
a busy, dark stretch of I-95 on the way to a friends house the Silver Bullet
met its maker in an accident with a Honda Accord. A poor way for a fine
car to meet its fate. It could have been avoided; I was lucky I wasn't
killed.
1/10/96
The
majority of the parts from The Z ended up in the Mighty K-car; the rear
trailing arm, brakes, rims and tires, springs, electronics, and transmission.
The rest that was salvaged was tucked aside for other projects.
Some
are even finding there way to a certain 89 Shelby z.
Be
safe out there, no matter how good you drive, it doesn't matter if the
other driver is brain dead.
Buckle
Up.
