Modern Station Wagon
 

A friend and I were talking about the discontinuation of the
Cadillac Wagon. It came to mind, what if NHRA allowed Cadillac and MOPAR to
have their 'longroofs' leagal for STK/SS.... this is a what if post but.....Modern Wagons racing with the DRAG PAKS, COPO'S?

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

The Magnum is in the guide just not the SRT version. With the Hemi in it looks like it would fall into G/SA

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

I have to ask then....Has anyone put one together? If not, why? I think it would be kinda cool.

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

I'd have to guess that you don't see them for a few reasons.

One: It takes a special guy that digs racing wagons(I think they are neat but never said I want to build one). It's a newer car that appeals to younger generation that is more into stereos and big shiny wheels.

Two: New cars don't pick up tons of power like the old cars do/did from the way the factory produces them. You would need to pick up over 3 seconds faster then they were stock. Without resorting to the popular aftermarket items like strokers, Superchargers, nitrous, Big cams and ported heads.

Would it be cool? Yes but it's a very limited audience on who would build one. However perhaps one in GT with a drag pack engine combo and HP factor??? Could be really cool.

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

The Magnum wagon would make a neat race car along with the Charger. The hp rating on the 5.7 Hemi is very high to start with, I think it's 345 hp and this isn't the Drag Pack motor. I'm not sure of the differences but I think it has a smaller throttle body and injectors, maybe a smaller cam, different intake. The hp rating also makes these cars very heavy for a G car @ 3965# with driver. If they fell into J-L they would be killer.
One other drawback is the rear end isn't solid, it's an independent setup with axle shafts, gear selection may be limited etc. To make it work would take some ingenuity and a few $$$.
I think the best kept secret is the 1500 series short bed regular cab truck with the 5.7. But it also has a high hp rating 345, making it an E car at 3620 lbs. It would be a much easier build, but it is a fairly big truck.
I'd like to learn more about these cars, it anybody knows them, please share some info with us. Question is why isn't anybody running them?
George

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

I think a Magnum would make for a really cool racecar, and the 5.7 Hemi wouldn't be bad at 345, but it would be almost 4000 lbs in its lightest class (G/SA). I doubt the 5.7 at 345 would be as good as the LS1 in a GTO at 340.

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

George,
Your reply made me think....I know the current GTO's did not come with a solid rear end, nor did the Corvettes yet, NHRA allows for solid rear ends to be used. I have seen both of these cars racing STK.
I wonder what the criteria is for this, location must remain the same etc.

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

NHRA made the change to a solid axle conversion legal several years ago. The GTO is a great example of that. I'm not sure of what the rules are on this or how the Magnum/Charger stock rears are attached, links, spring/shock set up.
One thing with the GTO was the engine was proven to be competitive at it's HP rating, where the street 5.7 hasn't been raced much under NHRA stock rules to show what it can do. I compared the engine BP specs, the 5.7 Challenger motor is quite different, street motor c.r. 10.5 to 12.7, cam lift .482/.470 to .602/.569, different heads. Some big numbers there.

Re: Modern Station Wagon
 

Fred Lee has a really nice product that would make the IRS live if you wanted to stick with that setup.

http://etenterprises.com/challenger/