DDG- Relentless 1999

Went to Cliff Sebrings Shelby Dodge event at Cecil County July 31st 1999 and made 14 passes on the new engine & transmission combo. Outside temps were in the 104-111 degree range with 35-50% humidity!

ET MPH ST
12.89 105.3 2.06
12.74 105.5 1.93
12.75 104.8 1.89
13.16 103.4 2.12
12.94 103.2 1.93
12.91 104.1 1.98
12.83 105.6 1.99
13.09 105.3 2.17
12.62 105.8 1.87
12.72 105.3 1.91
12.91 105.1 1.99
12.74 106.3 1.95
12.92 104.2 1.96
12.93 103.6 1.94

Because of a broken e-brake cable I wasn't able to do a proper burnout and get the slicks hot- this explains my uneven short times not to even mention the fact I have never raced a FWD car with an automatic before, there is more to this FWD auto stuff then meets the eye!

John Lucas admires my timing light technique while Dave Skrab smirks at the
Mustang that just oiled down the track for an hour...

Dukeing it out with Dan Carson in the final round of King of the Hill!
(He caught me napping)

1996-1997	July 1999	July 2000
Engine- 87 2.2, stock Daytona intercooler	Engine- 89 2.5, stock Daytona intercooler	Engine- 89 2.5 with forged pistons, triple intercooler cores

87 520 5-spd trans/3.50 final drive ratio	88 413 Auto trans/3.02 final drive ratio	88 413 Auto trans/2.76 final drive ratio
Chrome Moly plate in trans to protect 3rd	Manual valve body, Caravan clutch packs	Manual valve body, Caravan clutch packs

Stock cam 430 lift	Comp Cams 499 lift turbo cam	88 factory TBI roller
G casting head with 1mm valves	Same head with more porting and polishing	Forward Motion Stage III head with IMSA valves
88 Intake ported for 52 mm throttle body	88 Intake ported for 52 mm throttle body	87 2-piece intake ported for 52 mm throttle body
Stock exhaust manifold	Ported for 5 hours exhaust manifold	Forward Motion "basic" header kit
Stock 89 Turbo II turbo/2.5 inch swing valve	Stock 89 Turbo II turbo/2.5 inch swing valve	T4/T3 hybrid turbo
3 inch exhaust system	Same but shorter	3 inch downpipe, race only
52 mm throttle body	52 mm throttle body	52 mm throttle body
K&N in stock housing	800 cfm cone style air filter	800 cfm cone style air filter
Baffled oil pan	Oil pan with windage tray, no balance shafts	Oil pan with windage tray, no balance shafts
Stock Turbo II injectors & 5th injectors	Mopar Performance 20% injectors & 5th injectors	Mopar Performance 40% injectors & 5th injectors
86-87 GLHS electronics	86-87 GLHS electronics	86-87 GLHS electronics

Boost 21 psi	Boost 21-30 psi	Boost 30-33 psi

Best time: 13.56 @ 107.4 mph, 2.3 60 ft.	Best time: 12.62 @ 105.8 mph, 1.87 60 ft.	Best time: 10.86 @ 127 mph, 1.74 60 ft.

As you can see the K-car launches much harder now with the automatic. If I had launched this hard with the old motor the car would have run 12's a long time ago. Plans for the car are a larger turbo (the factory turbo is choking the larger motor), some minor lightening of the car and of course fixing the e-brake cable!

"Car should have no problems hitting 11's by the end of August once the turbo is replaced."

DOH! Went racing at Atco 9/29/99 and the transmission broke after 5 passes damnit!

Car ran a best of 12.3 @ 108.7 mph with the larger S-60 turbo and underdrive pulley being the only changes (except the e-brake cable being repaired of course) So I gained 3 mph and 3 tenths- I feel 12.1 - 12.2 could have been had by the end of the day, was just starting to get the feel for the automatic when something in the diff crapped out. (a side gear shim in the diff froze up)

The car needs a larger intercooler now, I feel its limiting the car on the top end (A much higher mph was expected based on how much harder the car pulls now not to mention the low et's its pulling) after the diff is replaced and the larger intercooler installed we will be heading back out to take another crack at the 11's.

Well I figured the next best thing to making power was going on a diet (the car not me knucklehead) so as you can see in the pictures, the car got light- 230 pounds lighter as a matter of fact. Everything inside the car was gutted, the rear area was tinned in and even the tilt steering column was replaced with a normal steering column (saved 7 pounds just on that) here is a breakdown of some of the stuff I pulled out.

As you can see even the dash wasn't spared my attention's.
From left to right; Water temp, tach, E.G.T., O2, boost (vacuum/30 psi)
Lower right; volts, oil pressure.

Well the intercooler wasn't going to be finished in time so I got everything in the car completed short of that, I hate racing knowing I'm not making more power then the last time I went so I decided to dust off some old Nitrous Oxide parts I had lying around and installed a 40 hp kit to add a little spice to the program.

Oct., 16th was a cool clear day at Cecil County and on the first pass Relentless ran a 12.0 at 110 mph at only 21 psi of boost! Knowing 11's were a twist of the "dial a boost" knob away I ran the boost up to 25 psi and the car made a picture perfect 11.9 pass at 112 mph! WOW! I didn't think the car would go that fast with the stock intercooler!!! The weight reduction really helped out. I kept a low profile for a few hours (the car has no cage) and waited for the top 8 shoot out, I figured if I was going to get tossed out I wanted to go out with a blast. Well 5 hours went by and I was matched up against Mike Demoss's 11 second GLHS, if we could both run our numbers it would be the first side by side 11 sec pass by FWD Mopars. We did! Mike red lighted out of the hole, and Relentless did its best to chase him down to no avail, the k-car had ran a 11.72 at 119 mph (on NOS) to Mikes 11.55 at 118 mph. Sadly the track surface for some reason had gone away for the car and the short time was only a 1.97 compared to its earlier 1.74. If I had cut another 1.74 the car would have ran a 11.3! I tried another pass later and managed to improve the short time a small margin and ran a 11.6 at 118 mph (on NOS). Here are a few timeslips;

Slip #1 is the k-car vs Mikes GLHS.
Slip #2 is the k-cars best 40 hp NOS pass.
Slip #3 is the k-cars best NON-NOS pass.

I'm going to Atco Nov. 7th with this new Monster Intercooler and try and run a 10, care to join me? =) The car is making an extra 30 hp I bet based on the amount of extra fuel I had to dial in, the car picked up close to 5 pounds of boost!

Its made from two stock cores welded together with custom end tanks. Cheaper then Spearco and just as good!

Views with the grill removed for viewing, you can see where the air from the turbo enters on the lower drivers side and exits out the upper passengers side. The 2 lines in the right picture run to the transmission cooler...

Piston number 4 in the k-car collapsed in the burnout box at Atco before I even made a pass. Ran 11.8 @ 112 with a 1.76 short time (NO NOS), car was not running right on top end. I leaned the motor out on the return road and everything seemed fine BUT when I opened the hood in staging there was oil everywhere from the dipstick tube being popped out by crankcase pressure. Cranking the car over it made the distinct noise of one cylinder with little compression. Well I didn't drive 280 miles to just pack up and leave so I headed back to staging and made another pass, and what a pass it was! The car hooked up with a 1.68!! short time and ran 11.68 @ 108 mph (NO NOS) When I shifted into high gear the number 4 piston failed altogether and pressurized the engine so bad it popped every seal on the engine!! I lost a quart of oil on the big end of the track!!! What happened was when I installed the intercooler it packed so much air into the motor that it increased my octane requirements- When I went for a road test after installing it there was the noise of very slight pinging. I went back to the house and added 110 octane race gas to the tank which stopped the ping but the damage was done and I had cracked a piston. If I had know this I would have cracked open the motor and swapped them out but the problem didn't show up till I was at Atco.. The hazards of running stock cast pistons!!

For the next race at Atco (the last of the year) I tossed in a 89 shortblock with 90,000 miles on it. It ran good and was quiet so I was sure it would be fine.

Atco- Some candy ass rotary boy whined to the track officials that I didn't have a rollbar after making two 11 second passes (11.9 and 11.8) thus ending my racing for the year.