The Dodge Challenger Message Board

OK then, here are the pics as the car is right now.


Primered after the grinding is done.


After the painting including the clearcoat.


A close up of the inner fender.


Compare these ports with the standard ones.

Hans, your car is really coming along now. Wow I really love that color, the engine bay is going to look great with that 340 sitting in it's home. I was just drooling over the pictures of your car and I was wondering how you fit those tires under the rear. What backspacing on the rim? Thank you, Keep up the good work.
Nick

Thanks Nick; the tires under the car right now are 275/60/15 on 8x15 rims. I wouldn't know the backspacing. I bought the car with these wheels and never measured it. The way it's set up now I have to inflate my air shocks a bit otherwise they will hit the arches. So it's not ideal.

There's a space between the leaf springs and tires of about 1". So when I order new wheels next year I take wheels with 0,5" more backspacing then they have now. Then I hope I can lower the shocks a bit for better handling and traction.

Hans, Somehow you have done it. Your latest pics have captured the true FC7 Plum Crazy colour. My car like most FC7 cars on the web site always look blue. I've tried both digital and conventional cameras. Still blue. What's your secret. Maybe I'll try an indoor/flash up close. At least now I can go to your pics and show people the real colour.

nice inlet's Hans, have you port matched your

manifold,and what brand manifold are you useing.

Tom, I just used a regular digital camara from work. Since the car's painted plum crazy it looks correct on the pictures. Before that when the color was more mouve it always went blue on photo's. Nothing specially done to capture it.

A mate of me ported the heads for me Luke. He has also done the manifold; a edelbrock performer rpm. Maybe in the future I will change to the air gap manifold, but that's for next year.

Just an update;

After I painted the engine compartment I put in new brakelines & hoses while installing the linelock. (hell of a job when nobody around can flare them correctly) After that I reroute/replaced the engine/head lights etc. wiring. (still have to test it) Last weekend the K-member and steering gearbox went in so now I can start with the rest of the front suspension. Meanwhile the engine is operated and got a new solid cam, r.rockers and some other mods. It's ready to be dropped in!

What happened to the 440 you bought and were going to drop in Hans?

Under the 'working bench' Dave... Sometime ago I thought "well if this 340 only gives me this... then I have to go along with a 440" but since I started to replace the piston rings (I already bought the 440 that time) and found out I also needed one new piston which had to be ordered me and my mate couldn't finish the work. Instead of that we start working on other parts of the 340 (a good porting job, advancing the cam & more little things) to fill up free time till I found a new piston.

After everything was done I finally could drive agin with the 340. And it drove away screaming for 30meters while before the above it only screamed going around a corner. So since that time I knew how a real 340 feels like. (the way the 340 was setup when I bought the car was not effective; for example BB valves with a mild cam and a small carb) That's why I'm still working on the 340 to beat some 440's .

Just had my first real ride again this weekend since 6 months of working on the car. Drove about an 80mile trip on the highway running 70mph with 3.91 gears & open headers (exhaust will be made next week); man did I had some sort of headache after the trip!!

But oh boy what a difference between my hydraulic edelbrock cam and the solid MP cam; it revs way faster with the solid cam. Although I haven't drove above 3500rpm yet for the brake-in (I still have to adjust the valves precisely, the have more valve lash right now done for a smooth brake-in off the engine) I can say it burns rubber in notime although I have a suregrip fiited. The 3.91 helps a lot!

So next week the exhaust will be installed along with new flowmaster mufflers and I'll set the right valve lash. After that it's time to drive it hard and see how it performs. I'm already curious for the next weekend!

I'm kinda surprised you can still hear anything, let alone had a headache.

Hans, What envy, I have a 72 I just got from a old man in California . All original with A/C and no way near the sweetheart you have. I saw a picture of your interior at one of the postings here. What did you paint your console flat , semi or glossy black and what brand. Sem? My nterior is green.

Steve, I painted my console semi-gloss black. I don't remember the brand, I believe it was Motib or something.

Just found 2 new pics of my car on the internet so thought why not upload them here too. (first time I used Irfanview Dave, quit simple)





And for the swedish guys around here; don't laugh because of that building you see at the background (IKEA)

Ah IKEA. A little bit of something Swedish in every home. Funny that because I always wanted to put a bit of British in something Swedish. When I was young and single of course (cough!).

Your car seems to be doing without wheels and floats on a layer of mist Hans. Spooky!

ha, ha...
(I simply could not resist it...)

Just installed a new carb last week, a speed demon. Way better then my previous edelbrock carb. Since the last 340 rebuilt the carb simply couldn't handle it anymore. If used my right foot a couple of times it just didn't gave me enough fuel; when hot the 340 almost didn't start; accelarating on the highway, at 5000rpm it didn't went faster; more of this stupidness. Since the demon is installed all the probs are gone and the overall performance increased big time!

Also installed my new wheels that weekend. This looks so much better compared to the old ones. Will try to take/post a picture this sunday. I went for the Centerlines Telstar wheels btw.

Here's the first picture I found from last weekend at the strip.

Promissed more pictures so...

See how it is sitting down slightly on the rear passenger side as it launches? If you can correct that your 60ft times will improve a lot.

I noticed it too Dave. It's quit a bit actually! Any suggestions how to correct it (except to make two 'points' to pump up the air shocks) and what's the idea behind it which makes it perform better? Seems I can't figure it out this time.

Corner drops due to big engine torque.

That corner dropping is equal to that corner lifting the wheel - same thing same effect i.e. you loose traction on that wheel.

If you have air shocks pump that corner up more. Or add a spring assister?
You can also try dropping the suspension diagonally opposite (front drivers side) maybe?

This is why super stock springs are stiffer on that side.

New pics after the Dragrace event this weekend.

looks very nice hans,good luck

Thought to try and upload a new picture with this forum, see if it works for me.

That's a great shot of your Challenger Hans!

How is the new engine coming along?

Are you going to run the 340 for another season?

Later!

I'm in the process of collecting parts for the new combo Steve. We have alu hemi heads, tunnelram, carbs, crank and some small parts so I'm inquiring for a block / rods & pistons etc. right now. So for this I contacted Ray Barton which provide me some more info sooner or later. So far it's said I can get about 700hp/650ft.lbs out of the hemi.

But this makes me looking around for some improvements on the rearend as the 8.3/4 won't get a long life behind it. So maybe I keep collecting parts till next winter period and throw in the Hemi w/ a 4-speed and a dana at once But first of all I have to finish my house some day.

To make this short; yes, I propably will drive the 340 for another season but then with the improved ignition and a single plane intake. Will keep you all informed.

To keep you all informed...

Allright, I know what I want. As you all might know I got a hemi on my way, actually Barton had the shortblock done 2 weeks ago. Andy, former visitor of this board, is going down to Barton's place end of this week for the dyno of his hemi and will bring home my hemi too. Then the time's there to ship it.

Obviously I don't wanna rush with things like this so I planned all the work to be done this coming winter. Lots of work I can say...

Work to be done;
- Drop in the hemi
- Install the Sox & Martin racing 4-speed
- Minitub the car to get some traction (interior stays stock looking in the rear)
- Put in a Dana60 with 4.30 gears and as big as tire can get under it
- 6 point roll bar to be legal for 10 / 11's
- Fiber hood as Tig has (raised sixpack hood) to clear manifold
- Needed mods for the above

So next year; 700hp backed up by a 4speed. Like it!! So if you all need some clutch plates and stuff better get them fast as next year they'll all be shipped to me

It is a pity Andy and me fell out. We just don't see eye to eye on a few things. But he is extreamly helpful to lots of people and there is many a Mopar on this side of the Atlantic that owes a lot to him. Mine included.

Tig says he had his roll cage made from steam pipe. This stuff, although easy to weld, is WAY too heavy. Tigs car weighs almost 4000lbs as a result which is stupid for a race car. He has spent a lot of time effort and money getting this car into the low 10s but I can't help think it all would have been a lot easier (and cheaper) with less weight.

Yes, Andy's very helpful. To bad you 2 didn't get along to well somehow.

Got a photo of Tig's car; lifting his front wheel during his burnout Man, that car really flyes!! But yeah, it's a bit heavy. Imagine what it would run with say 300lbs less (which is still quit heavy) High 9's on pumpgas & streetable!

Hope to reach 10's eventually too with the above combo. Would be nice to cruise around with a 10sec N/A streetcar...