Autocross in a '68 Charger

[Laxy]

Recently I competed in a motorkhana/autocross type event in my '68 for a bit of a laugh - it has stock suspension but a decent 440/727 so I knew I could have fun even with hideous handling.

To be fair, I didn't find the handling too bad in the end - the finger light power steering was the main problem as it gave no road feel. When pushed hard, the car would understeer hard and then snap into oversteer on corner exits. Had some car issues on the day too, valve cover gasket let go and was dumping oil on the headers for a nice smoke trail, also it was fouling up on the secondaries and dropping to 7 sometimes. Main issue was valve train clatter mid run, will be trying a different oil and maybe a baffled sump? Hopefully didn't do too much damage, it would quieten down again straight away once idling.

Otherwise the other major hindrance was the automatic, has a standard shifter setup and wouldn't downshift properly into corners.

Anyway, onto the pics and video! There were 2 stages, each run 4 times. Then we had 2 runs up the drag strip where I took the opportunity to destroy a set of tyres.







Borrowed a couple of Go-Pro cameras, the second run was probably the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqiNxq27IyY

The other runs with some different camera angles (Run 4 is cool with 'front wheel cam' like an old school car chase movie).

Run 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVPA_L75f6U

Run 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRAmR8tposI

Run 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PpkvzempI

My mates filmed a couple of the burnouts from outside the car too, super happy with these (turn it up)!
1st burnout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-1iEgMDA20

2nd burnout (way bigger):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygIpX0DyeM4

After all this messing around, the big Dodge actually beat a few cars overall - a Holden Commodore, Mazda Miata and a Mini! LOL

I normally do these events in my Valiant hardtop, much lighter with far superior handling but less HP, interestingly the Dodge's lap times were within a few tenths on both stages. Have videos/pics of those events if anyone is interested.

Cheers 

[1974dodgecharger]

Sweet....

[NHCharger]

Awesome

[six-tee-nine]

all you need for a boatload of fun.....

[JR]

Nice driving! Post the valiant videos too.

I wish more guys would take their cars to events like this and you know, actually drive the things instead of sitting behind them in lawn chairs like some sort of mobile retirement home.

I'm hoping to take my 70 to its first autocross this month, just waiting on some 17 inch wheels to come in so I can mount proper rubber. Im used to autoXing/tracking an e36 M3  so it will be like starting from scratch learning to drive a 4000lb softly sprung boat around a course.

Ever done any track days in your 68? That would make for great video.

[mightywing7]

Love the pics and video!!

[bakerhillpins]

 

[Dino]

That was awesome!  Where do I sign up?   

Not too bad for a car with old worn stock suspension.   

[Challenger340]

Ah Geez, now THAT is pretty impressive for a real driving experience in a 60's musclecar  THANKS for sharing !
BTW,
Your Charger is absolutely Beautiful

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Nice driving & sweet looking ride

[Back N Black]

Wow! that was awesome! I would love to try autocross someday. It beats being at a car show sitting on a lawn chair. 

[Homerr]

Nice job driving!

And nice job placing the camera.  Too many boring forward dash cams out there.  This shows so much more.  How about an edit splicing the forward and rear footage together?!

[brianz426]

I agree, thumbs up on the camera placing and the driving. B-bodies are a handful but a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing the videos.

[68pplcharger]

Awesome, I've got one I'm building I want to do some autocross with... Looks like a blast 

[TUFCAT]

Dude!    You drove the shit out of that big old poor handling car  Very well done    Nice driving skills, very smartly driven!  

The Charger also sounds great, and really gets with the program!  

[Brass]

Great stuff - I could watch that all day!  An accusump oil accumulator (Moroso or Canton) would help get oil to the valve train under those conditions.

[tan top]

    wow !! you  Da MAN                     Great stuff  !! charger sounds & looks awesome  !!





thanks for sharing  !!
 

[flyinlow]

Thanks for posting that.  Good to see a vintage car being driven.

[NYCMille]

Well done Sir!!! 

[lookin@my68]

Great stuff!

[dodgey68]

Nice work, looked like a shit load of fun,,  
I have done nothing like that in mine and I tried to set it up to handle stuff like that,,,,   ,,, I have finally got a bigblock & auto and will do an engine exchange when a can afford it,,,and I will try an autocross event,,  
thanks for sharing,,,

[BIGBLCK11]

  Very cool!  Looks and sounds great.  Nice driving!

[myk]

You're a brave man, to be sure.  I'm not even going to drive by the auto-X events until I get my suspension properly upgraded...

[1970Moparmann]

Wow! that was awesome! I would love to try autocross someday. It beats being at a car show sitting on a lawn chair. 

Amen brother!

[grdprx]

That's awesome!  Thanks for sharing.     Looks super fun!

[tnthull]

Looked fun man! Good to see a charger at a track that isn't straight!

[mowdawg]

Fantastic!  Thanks for sharing!

[R6red4spd69RT]

Man.... that brought back memories from my younger days, only without the track!!

Thank you!!! 

[Laxy]

Wow, thanks for all the nice comments! Glad everyone enjoyed it!

I'll post some stuff up of the Valiant competing, it's much better suited to these events and easier to throw around on the limit but obviously it doesn't quite have the wow factor of a Charger.

JR: I do track days in the Valiant but keen to get the '68 out on one. Doing the autocross event was a tester to see what issues it had so I can attempt to prep it to handle a flogging around a track!

Homerr: You read my mind, I'm keen to edit this footage into a proper highlights reel, just gotta find the time!

Brass: Thanks for the tip, I'm off to google these now.

dodgey68: A good one to start off with might be the Midstate Mopars motorkhana thing they do, always been keen to enter but moving away from Victoria stopped those plans.

[Laxy]

OK so this one is a mild 265 Hemi, 4-speed manual and a 3.5 geared rear end. Good shocks but no sway bars so lots of body roll (I think it adds to the fun).





Here's some out-of-car footage of the Val and my mate's VF Valiant hardtop (360/727). Worth watching all the way through as we discovered a much better elevated camera vantage point partway through and the runs also get better as we progressively pushed harder with lots of sideways action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnfbp5EZTTk

A playlist of onboard GoPro footage at a different event from a couple of different angles - the LSD died partway through this event which made the wheelspin a bit unpredictable.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06C1iaR4ESHJ4-B8UZC7tIa-8jz1g5HW

This video shows some highlights from a track event (sorry the drag stuff isn't particularly exciting!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7frkcnKkolE

[Homerr]

Your Charger sound great and performs like what I'd like to build out a car like. 

Do you mind sharing what the specs are for these items:

engine build - cam, intake, carb, stock heads (port work?), stock exhaust manifolds/headers, stroked?
exhaust
gearset

[Laxy]

I was searching around my build sheet last night but couldn't find it, here's a brief run down for now:

Stock stroke '70 440, cleaned up iron heads with some basic porting, around 10.5:1 comp (runs on 98), mild hydraulic cam, Performer RPM, Edelbrock 750 vac sec, 1 3/4" Hedman 4 into 1 headers and the worst redneck exhaust ever - twin 2 inch drain pipes with no crossover and small cherry bomb type mufflers. Gives it a nice rasp but very restrictive, I've order a 3" TTI system for it. 3.23 LSD in the 8 3/4 out back.

On the engine dyno when built (2010), it put out 449 flywheel hp at a little over 5,000rpm. With the current exhaust it's putting out much less than that in the car. Whole combo is very mild and driveable, I drove the car across Australia with this setup.

I'll PM you a proper list of specs with cam details etc when I can find this damn sheet!

[fy469rtse]

We should temp you to drive across Australia next year, chryslers on the Murray , organise for all us Australian members to meet up with our chargers

[Laxy]

We should temp you to drive across Australia next year, chryslers on the Murray , organise for all us Australian members to meet up with our chargers

Yeah I have been tempted! I fly across every year but driving would be awesome. I last had the Charger there in 2011 as it was still stored in Melbourne for awhile after I shifted West.