Here is a link to some interesting observations/photos of the Challenger that showed up for Koni Challenge practice at Daytona: Forums - Blackforest Dodge Challenger - Grand-Am.
Blackforest Challenger at Daytona
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I think the car looks great! Hopefully they can get the weight down to make it competitive.
Seems kind of high off the ground for a race car......
Seems kind of high off the ground for a race car......
Not only that but the 18" wheels look cartoonishly small on the car. We were several garages down from it at test days and even though it's a beautiful car, we couldn't help but make cracks about it being a ghetto lowrider with 14" wheels:lol1:
I hope they can get the weight down and make the car a bit faster. I'm waiting to see how much they were holding back at test days since they were just shaking the car down, hopefully it was a lot since they were pretty slow
Awesome:beer:
I think the car looks great! Hopefully they can get the weight down to make it competitive.
Seems kind of high off the ground for a race car......
Well, at least if they go off course, they have plenty of room :lol:
Doesn't everybody hold back at test days?!?! ;-)
We'll see in a little over a week:thumbsup:
I heard that the Koni Challenger is doing poorly? Something about its weight?
And to think people complained about the GT500! :dw:
It didn't make the end of the race at Daytona (I think it blew up) which put it in 51st according to the GA website.
I don't know how much I believe about what has been let known on the car. Talking with the Black Forest guys, they said they couldn't get it under 3700#'s (IIRC), but at the same time they said when they picked it up, that it weighed 4900
Chrysler's website says 4140 for the SRT version FWIW. It was said that they didn't have much time (something around 4 weeks) to get it prepared so we were hoping that they would use Daytona as just a play session and come on stronger the next race or two.Last weekend at Homestead they loaded the hauler and left before the race even started
They were qualified 22nd out of 29:uh oh: I had heard rumors that Chrysler had taken more of an interest since the poor showing at Daytona and that they supposedly had a bit more engine. Their lap times really didn't show it though, which of course has some to do with the portlyness and lack of tire.It's really not looking good for the car. Hopefully they can pull something together for New Jersey, I would really like to see the car perform, especially if the Camaro makes it out at some point as well.
The other thing that car has going against it is high speed stability. Meaning it has none. From what I have read the front end gets pretty light at higher speeds which probably would make a bad situation (more weight, not enough tire, etc) worse.
It's to bad because I still think it looks the part quite nicely but unfortunately I don't think you'll see any official help from Chrysler in Grand Am.
It's to bad because I still think it looks the part quite nicely but unfortunately I don't think you'll see any official help from Chrysler in Grand Am.
The rest of the field has so much more experience with their cars on each of the tracks that the Challenger is certainly fighting an uphill battle.
The Camaro will also have an uphill battle when (and if) they show up on the grid. And that car is lighter.
Daytona is tough on an engine because you are sitting on the rev limiter for such a long time every lap. The valve train really takes a beating. You don't experience that at any other road course track.
The Mustang that I occasionally co-drove in vintage has now destroyed four $25K engines at Daytona (versus one in the many other tracks). He now says he is never going back. I stopped going a few years ago. It is tough on the car and just too damn dangerous for me. We put a GPS in an old Mustang and recorded 170+ mph. A flat RF tire in the oval at T-2 or T-4 means you are in the wall (and hard).
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