Well I have been reading some of these kill stories and being that I am not Stateside and miss my toys, I figure I would post an older kill story of my daily driver 89' Turbo Caravan.
I have a 1989 Dodge Caravan with a turbo charged 2.5l. They came factory turbocharged in 1989-90. Since I have had the van I have rebuilt the motor with forged Wiseco pistons - rest of the bottom end is stock. At the time of this tale, the van had a super 60 turbo (T3-60 trim w/.63 turbine housing) full 3" exhaust from downpipe back, 3" Dynomax ultra flow muffler. 3-bar mail-order calibration (uses a turbo trans am map sensor), ported exhaust manifold, gasket matched head, stock cam, home made CAI made with flexi exhaust pipe, intercooler off of a 89' toyota supra and a built 3 speed automatic trans. Street tires - complete street daily driven trim.
I have always wanted one of these things. Its so God Dam* fun to drive. On to the story...
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Took the van to the track at Temple/Academy Dragway in Tx.
First run of the night:
Boost is set at 15PSI. Lined up against a 5.0 fox bodied stang. Heard the lope to it and I knew I was in trouble, then I thought oh well, I am in a van who is he going to brag to when he wins. The track announcer starts talking smack saying "He's going to Wal-Mart to get groceries/ sombody pimp his ride" ect. I do a little burn out to clean the tires off and stage. I barely bring the revs off of idle and on the green I roll it out and stuff it, to my suprise I hook right up and put half a van on the stang but it wasnt to last long, he hooked up and ran away from me with me running a 2.46 60' [email protected] MPH to his 2.54 60' and 13.53 @107 mph. After the race he comes up and asks me what the hell do I have in the van. Turns out he was super charged. He said he wasnt expecting that. Then soon I had a small crowd around the van wanting to know what was up with it.
Run 2:
Boost set at 19 PSI thanks to a few turns of the manual boost controller. This time I get lined up with some gutted, loud 80's RX7 with a cage and some slicks. Usually those types of cars are either really fast or really slow. Again the announcer starts talking about the van, this time he is talking smack for me saying "He only has 4 cyl/ who wants a piece of the nitrous van" ect. Again I do a small burn out to clean the tires off and pull up to the line and stage. Mr.Gutted RX7 does a big smoke show. This time I bring the revs up a bit more on the launch, light goes green I roll into it and stuff it about 20' out and we are off. RX7 kind of stays even with me out of the hole till the ol 2.5 instantly spools the super 60 to 19PSI then I see him fade fast out of my peripherial. I ran a 2.36 60' and 14.57 @ 91.76 mph to his 17.75 @ 73 MPH.
Run 3:
Boost at 19PSI. By now I have tons of people around the van between runs checking it out, along with some drunk guy trying to tell me how to port heads and the benefits of running an air filter. As I am waiting in the staging lanes the announcer is saying "Who wants to run the van for pinks?/ The mini is calling out you guys in the hemi-truck club/ What V8 muscle car wants a piece of that mini van?/" Well I get to the staging lanes and there is no one next to me, I guess they are scared. I have two bolt-on LT1 Trans ams behind me that want to race each other. I pull into the burnout box by me lonesome and wait for instructions. The announcer starts talking so much smack to the WS6 T/A behind me, and I guess he couldnt take it anymore so he pulled up next to me. I again do my little burn out. I can hear the announcer say "Who thinks that the mini van is gonna smoke that Pontiac?/ Hey Mr Trans Am, take it easy on the van, it only has 4 cyl" On the line I bring the revs up just a bit more and on the green we are off. I hook dead-balls and instantly jump ahead of the T/A, I just kept it in "D" as in all previous runs and held it to the boards and wait for Mr.T/A to catch me and walk by.... 1/8 mi comes and he is still back there, holy $hit, I might have this one... and as we cross the line it seems he is about 2-3 cars back. I ran a 2.28 60' and 14.39 @ 92.33 to his 2.63 60' and 14.63 @ 98.25. The T/A drives from the shutdown area straight out the gate and leaves the strip.
My friends who were in the stands told me the crowd exploded. They told me everyone thought the T/A was going to win (hell I did too) but they were rooting for me. Even the little kids were cheering for me.
Once again in the staging lanes I have a crowd gathered. My buddy tells me " Man, you got a 89' POS mini van and I got a 03' cobra and you would get more pu$$y here than me." I had a good laugh at that one. Even some nice looking MILF came up to me and said "Thanks for bringing some respect to us soccer moms."
To top it off, on the way home on the freeway I get into a few 45 MPH rolls with a nice Benz. I pull him pretty hard all 3 times. This was a nice Benz also, had rims, lowered and couldnt be more than a year or two old and wasnt the cheap model, I couldnt see what class it was but it was pretty decent size 2 door. Stop at a light and it turns out he seen me at the track and his wife said " I spilled my drink on myself messin' with you".
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Since then I have rebuilt the trans again, put a hybrid t3/t4 turbo with a T4E 57 trim compressor and used the same .63 turbine, installed a huge intercooler, a ported intake manifold and a ported head. I just need to find somone who can dyno tune this dinosaur. Runs much better now than it did in the above story. Its great daily driver, gets good gas mileage and I can haul anything.
Here are a few pics, yes its beat and ugly but thats half the fun of it. Ultimate sleeper. I built it to kill the rice and it does that well. I have even caught some American iron sleeping.
Jeff
I have a 1989 Dodge Caravan with a turbo charged 2.5l. They came factory turbocharged in 1989-90. Since I have had the van I have rebuilt the motor with forged Wiseco pistons - rest of the bottom end is stock. At the time of this tale, the van had a super 60 turbo (T3-60 trim w/.63 turbine housing) full 3" exhaust from downpipe back, 3" Dynomax ultra flow muffler. 3-bar mail-order calibration (uses a turbo trans am map sensor), ported exhaust manifold, gasket matched head, stock cam, home made CAI made with flexi exhaust pipe, intercooler off of a 89' toyota supra and a built 3 speed automatic trans. Street tires - complete street daily driven trim.
I have always wanted one of these things. Its so God Dam* fun to drive. On to the story...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Took the van to the track at Temple/Academy Dragway in Tx.
First run of the night:
Boost is set at 15PSI. Lined up against a 5.0 fox bodied stang. Heard the lope to it and I knew I was in trouble, then I thought oh well, I am in a van who is he going to brag to when he wins. The track announcer starts talking smack saying "He's going to Wal-Mart to get groceries/ sombody pimp his ride" ect. I do a little burn out to clean the tires off and stage. I barely bring the revs off of idle and on the green I roll it out and stuff it, to my suprise I hook right up and put half a van on the stang but it wasnt to last long, he hooked up and ran away from me with me running a 2.46 60' [email protected] MPH to his 2.54 60' and 13.53 @107 mph. After the race he comes up and asks me what the hell do I have in the van. Turns out he was super charged. He said he wasnt expecting that. Then soon I had a small crowd around the van wanting to know what was up with it.
Run 2:
Boost set at 19 PSI thanks to a few turns of the manual boost controller. This time I get lined up with some gutted, loud 80's RX7 with a cage and some slicks. Usually those types of cars are either really fast or really slow. Again the announcer starts talking about the van, this time he is talking smack for me saying "He only has 4 cyl/ who wants a piece of the nitrous van" ect. Again I do a small burn out to clean the tires off and pull up to the line and stage. Mr.Gutted RX7 does a big smoke show. This time I bring the revs up a bit more on the launch, light goes green I roll into it and stuff it about 20' out and we are off. RX7 kind of stays even with me out of the hole till the ol 2.5 instantly spools the super 60 to 19PSI then I see him fade fast out of my peripherial. I ran a 2.36 60' and 14.57 @ 91.76 mph to his 17.75 @ 73 MPH.
Run 3:
Boost at 19PSI. By now I have tons of people around the van between runs checking it out, along with some drunk guy trying to tell me how to port heads and the benefits of running an air filter. As I am waiting in the staging lanes the announcer is saying "Who wants to run the van for pinks?/ The mini is calling out you guys in the hemi-truck club/ What V8 muscle car wants a piece of that mini van?/" Well I get to the staging lanes and there is no one next to me, I guess they are scared. I have two bolt-on LT1 Trans ams behind me that want to race each other. I pull into the burnout box by me lonesome and wait for instructions. The announcer starts talking so much smack to the WS6 T/A behind me, and I guess he couldnt take it anymore so he pulled up next to me. I again do my little burn out. I can hear the announcer say "Who thinks that the mini van is gonna smoke that Pontiac?/ Hey Mr Trans Am, take it easy on the van, it only has 4 cyl" On the line I bring the revs up just a bit more and on the green we are off. I hook dead-balls and instantly jump ahead of the T/A, I just kept it in "D" as in all previous runs and held it to the boards and wait for Mr.T/A to catch me and walk by.... 1/8 mi comes and he is still back there, holy $hit, I might have this one... and as we cross the line it seems he is about 2-3 cars back. I ran a 2.28 60' and 14.39 @ 92.33 to his 2.63 60' and 14.63 @ 98.25. The T/A drives from the shutdown area straight out the gate and leaves the strip.
My friends who were in the stands told me the crowd exploded. They told me everyone thought the T/A was going to win (hell I did too) but they were rooting for me. Even the little kids were cheering for me.
Once again in the staging lanes I have a crowd gathered. My buddy tells me " Man, you got a 89' POS mini van and I got a 03' cobra and you would get more pu$$y here than me." I had a good laugh at that one. Even some nice looking MILF came up to me and said "Thanks for bringing some respect to us soccer moms."
To top it off, on the way home on the freeway I get into a few 45 MPH rolls with a nice Benz. I pull him pretty hard all 3 times. This was a nice Benz also, had rims, lowered and couldnt be more than a year or two old and wasnt the cheap model, I couldnt see what class it was but it was pretty decent size 2 door. Stop at a light and it turns out he seen me at the track and his wife said " I spilled my drink on myself messin' with you".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since then I have rebuilt the trans again, put a hybrid t3/t4 turbo with a T4E 57 trim compressor and used the same .63 turbine, installed a huge intercooler, a ported intake manifold and a ported head. I just need to find somone who can dyno tune this dinosaur. Runs much better now than it did in the above story. Its great daily driver, gets good gas mileage and I can haul anything.
Here are a few pics, yes its beat and ugly but thats half the fun of it. Ultimate sleeper. I built it to kill the rice and it does that well. I have even caught some American iron sleeping.
Jeff
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Loved the story.
