A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.

[Cglrcng]

A tiny bit of history. (Though lived about 3 miles from Lions in the 60's early in life, fan of the biggies (I loved Fuel Cars...Bernstein, Prudhome, Ivo, Garlits, you name it), 1st bracket raced starting after high school at O.C.I.R. in 1975 through the late 80's (I Won my first Wally Div. Bracket 3 Heavy Champ 1984-in a 250 car field. 2 teams A and B from each track (20 cars per team), from every participating track in the entire Western Div.6- it was the 1 year they did away with NHRA Div. 7 and combined it with Div. 6 and it was the magic year of my bracket racing career, track champ at multiple tracks (O.C.I.R. the last year, Famoso, Carlsbad, LA County, and another that escapes me), also towed to the Florida Winter E.T. Series in 83, 84, and 85 and found success(Best of Runner-Up 2K win in another 250 car field just weeks after winning my first Wally in 84 at Moroso Motorsports Park after driving 3 days from CA to West Palm Beach, with the same 63 Dodge Polara others there named the "Big White Refrigerator", against a lot of very fast company in sleek new button leaving diggers (Does Johnny Labouse and Scotty Richardson ring any bells), as I was foot braking my bracket car at 12.00 Flat (no cage or rollbar) and then made the first failed but super fun attempt at class racing in 1994-1997, I was somewhat competitive but the car certainly was not, it was the absolute slowest car in the category running in GF/SA).

Who inspired me to attempt Class Racing in Stock someday? Chad Langdon, and another who drove his Stocker Pinto wagon from SoCal to Indy (racing it in Stock, then driving it back home, and lived a short dream of racing at The Big Go. And in Super Stock the original builder of my winning at the time (mid 80's time period), bracket car (a whit/blue 63 Dodge Polara), Peter Berkuta....and Later none other than GTX John Irving, and am so glad to see he and Jon are still at it and so active after all these years living the dream.

Am rejoining Yac and Nees with a very old slow sled project, last raced actively in the 1990's purchased a car in the family since new dealer purchased Feb. 2 1985 w/27K on the odometer in April of 1993 (last active Feb. 1997 Atsco Nationals Phx, AZ, GF/SA Class Finalist, and really glad the winner is still active albeit a quarter of a century later).

What is the combination? The slowest and most underpowered sled I think to ever attempt the mission, but too late now to back out, what is done is done, and this newbie decided to move forward.

A 1984 Dodge Daytona 2.2L/135 C.I. TBI 99HP (single point Upright Bosch injected...NON-Turbo snail), 2 door hatchback).

How did it become a Stocker? Mom bought the car as a daily driver from Cerritos Dodge in SoCal Feb. 1995 (build date 3rd week Dec. 1984, Uncommon Block EFI, w/A/C...Silver/Silver), she drove it first 27K miles and was forced to retire in a AAA downsize in 1993, and was moving to AZ, I bought it for my wife (for 3K), as a daily, and 3 weeks later she asked if it could be raced in Stk. Elim.?

The next weekend I was at Carlsbad Raceway to find out....(continued).

Edited and reposted from Yac's Newbie post/thread. After a few auto logouts I am going to break up my build thread and journey into smaller posts...high time to quit junking up his thread.

Next up a few pics, and I have a ton along the way.

[Cglrcng]

The day we picked up the car in 1993 in Long Beach, CA (3K time purchase price from Mom, so much a month, and it didn't take long to earn the sign off on the title), bought for my wife as, a well-cared for, daily driver.

The only actual pic on short notice (I will post it later), shows half the car...Silver on Silver, and Silver/Gray interior, 2 door hatchback, never been in an accident, no bondo, no scratches, zero rust, only 27K miles on the odometer (only driven back and forth to work Feb 1985 to April 93), never even driven on vacation or been out of CA at that point, garaged or curb parked. I was with Mom when she picked it up form the dealer, no major work done except sched. maint., ever.

She (my wife), drove it for all of 3 weeks and made a fateful mistake. She asked me if it would be possible to race a completely factory Stock Slow Street Car that was low mileage, and well cared for, and was only dealer serviced its entire lifetime that I knew the entire maint. history on and I had changed the oil on a few times before).

You see, I always wanted to go class racing in Stock Eliminator (ala Chad Langdon and some of my other friends and competitors), racing back in the day, and a few years earlier I wanted to buy (at a great price in the late 80's), Al Wilson's A/SA Mopar (out of FL), but it was just not doable at the time, was in reach pricewise to obtain the car, but then what...I really could not afford the higher end cost of racing it in reality after all of our bean counting was done, with our 2nd son on the way, and a business to run, a new condo, and many employees to manage, while living in SoCal/South Orange County.

Going fast (A/SA was fast back then)...But, a budget slow GF/SA car when she made that mistake of asking the question, was quite doable.

My answer was quick, and Carlsbad was right down the road, Wednesday to Saturday seemed a long way away.

Carlsbad, Saturday morning, a bone stock 1984 Factory equipped w/ air and CA Emissions, Electric Windows, manual remote mirrors, no sushi slicer (Non-Turbo) 84' Dodge Daytona (Late December build -assembly 3rd week of 84') (15th week 84' casted Uncommon block) 2.2L/135 CI (Single Point injected- Upright Bosch Type), 99HP TBI. And just on unleaded pump gas w/ a lil octane booster added.

That is 4 spark plugs, 1 injector, 1 small single barrel and 1 round butterfly venturi type upright throttle body and blade, a tiny intake manifold and an air intake pathway that stinks to high heaven, with all the twists and turns it has stock to squeeze air through a lousy slider type single OHC cam (1), both in and out of the rear of that transverse mounted head w// no valve job yet. 2 computers...both an under hood fender mounted Power Module controlling spark and the injector, and a passenger side mounted ECU (calculating & controlling everything else in an early crude and simplified Mopar shot at full production attempted EFI, that was recognized so bad by (By the manufacturer mid year 1984...even though they sold a lot of them), as "The Deathly & Boringly Slow Sporty Dodge" that they decided to slap on a sushi slicer small Turbo, and cancelled the entire EFI/TBI slated for the 1985 year model, and never produced another of that particular single point TBI type again), in the lower right kick panel.

(The EPA refused to allow anyone to ever to this day in 2023, release to anyone "except the authorized rebuilders" the actual coding for the 1984 single year units of the TBI ECU, and nobody I have ever found-SO FAR, has ever cracked and hacked, and published the 84 EFI ECU tables (mainly due to very few ever wasted their time racing this a slow sled, since the multi-point injected turbos started limited production that same year...even the 84 Turbos were a single year 1 off, all the others after were different), and though with a special custom cable is avail. which using a serial cable and the under hood mounted diag. cable connector (passenger side fender), and the published hacked reading software, and looking at the 85 Turbo model published code and tables, and simply disregarding the tables that mentioned anything Turbo related, you can easily back engineer and change many of the function table flags (turning some things on/off)....Decades ago I wanted to simply up or turn off any rev limit feature, but today for sure I can tell you after 1 recent pass that mine is set beyond 7,000 RPM on at least 1 of my ECU's of 6 I have, the one in the car now and last in the car in 1997, so it is just fine!

This is not a laptop tuning model without installing a standalone Holley or like system and rewiring the entire car. (That is the plan soon though).

That must be developed slowly so we just remove the engine only wiring harness, install the Holley control over that and all sensors and functions, and leave the key switch to operate everything else from headlights to tail lights and the EFI fuel delivery and safety systems, power windows, etc.

Oh yeah, did I forget to say while I could rebuild and tune Carbs of all kinds up to this point in life in my sleep, that this was my very first EFI car, Oh, I knew absolutely nothing about EFI (what a real learning experience the first few years was!) Carbs and a screwdriver....EFI a multimeter and a laptop. (Ok, and not on my Locked out secret squirrel ECU/PM...Thank You so much you freaking EPA Monsters!)

[Cglrcng]

Back to the track though (looked it up in 1993), car naturally fit FF/SA, and can go up to 25.00Lbs/per HP in GF/SA, and at that time the factor said 110HP period...more about that later in the story until late May 1995 and Feb. 1996 period.

First pass ever on this car (April or May 1993), in the quarter at Carlsbad in ok air, is -.10 under the GF/SA index of 17.45 and the car is showing about 200 lbs heavy. 4 time trials later it is very (though not deadly), consistent since I am making minor tire pressure changes, air cleaner element in, out, among other things, 1 at a time changes during a not really packed but busy track day).

My lights ranged .496, then .506 to .512 over the next 3 (-.004 today to .012) on a 3 amber 5/10's tree- more than ok, perfect actually, the car runs under from the factory (as long as you drop it 1 class and race it heavy, and the mile an hr is in the 84-85 MPH range. And shift points are at 5,200-5,600 depended on in D or shifted manually. (Through the Cat/Muffler, and A/C belt still on it, A/C turned off).

Beyond that it is beyond the power range.(with zero machining and the stock cam

OK, as a class car it certainly isn't quick, but it has potential, and there must be a lot of changes we can make, just not today.

Let's see how good a bracket car it will be...entered the Street Class Bracket 4 for the day., 36 cars in the bracket and a few hrs. later I have a $400.00 win ck., and a trophy, took the money home and broke the good news / bad news to her, we have a definite slow E.T. bracket car (and potential future Budget Class Car), and we are going shopping for another daily driver for her on Monday!

That was not its only win in slow bracket play, quite a few resulted in 93 and 94, from Carlsbad, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Surprise, AZ, and Chandler, AZ. (Plus 2nd place at a S/SS Shootout at Surprise, AZ put on by Pitre Chrysler Plymouth). I wanted to race National events in 1995, so 1994 was spent earning grade points.

I will start to list the early changes done to the car next to get it from a -.10 under deal to a just ok (but still not really competitive -.55 under deal, and the beginning of the "dreaded and seemingly impossible to resolve issue" that caused me to park it both before and, even after I requested a review of the combo in Dec. 1995, and received a very welcomed 11HP reduction in Feb. 1996. (when you only start w/ 99HP, am forced to race it 11HP higher at 110, and each HP is equal to more than 1%, and each added HP cost you to race 25lbs heavier, it isn't very hard to figure out you are carrying around a lot of unnecessary (like 275lbs too much on a snails back).

Before the reduction request (1995 Englishtown, NJ National Event, had just won Class Wally alone, and just under the index by a couple of tenths btw with issues...the days before they added the Combo-Class races, a tech official visited our pit area and told me I did not have to report to the barn for teardown but my buddy was to report there....I casually asked why I was being penalized 11HP, when I knew for a fact that nobody but this guy, had ever raced this specific car/engine combo before in Stk. Elim. and he looked at me, and said let me go find out if that is correct or not...He came back about a half hour later and said, you know...YOU ARE RIGHT....The only passes or data we have on that specific TBI combo historically are all yours, just less than a year and a half's worth, and every single 1 of those, made in competition come in way under the top performance required to penalize your combo.

And then showed me how to submit a request to review the combo, and at the same time we checked all my numbers and did find out that Chrysler never did actually add (report to NHRA at least), the mid-year change of the intake they factory installed on my car, and in an hr. he was on the phone with the Manufacturer and had a definitive answer that that vin was produced 3rd week of 1984, and that they were out of the 1984 intakes by then and that particular car was produced with the intakes they had originally mid-year prepared for the 1985 model year never produced. So, they used them...Then NHRA added the intake number also at the same time I received my HP Reduction back to the original 99HP.

(Am currently attempting to find out what happened somewhere before 6-2-2003 that caused the current increase of 6HP factoring to 105HP, have had no luck researching the avail. data as of yet...(6HP is 150 lbs). I dieted the car legally to run it at 99HP.

So, I have had to add weight back.

[Cglrcng]

Sry, I will figure out the attaching of images here next. The story will be nothing but a bore without the pics.

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by Cglrcng

Sry, I will figure out the attaching of images here next. The story will be nothing but a bore without the pics.

Do you remember Lion Country Safari right down the road

[Cglrcng]

Originally Posted by David Lee

Do you remember Lion Country Safari right down the road

Absolutely, though I attempted to rarely get that near exceptional wild animals that far north of the San Diego Zoo. (The Fox Hunts at O.C.I.R. especially the ones featuring 64 Funny Cars were pretty much a Zoo with plenty of wild animals of the human kind in their own right!)

In the 70's on those rare Saturday nights when they were AM/FM promoting all over the Southland for weeks on end before the events, it was standing room only, and just driving a bracket car to the lanes was like a trip to the jungle.

[David Lee]

i wonder if we crossed paths. back then i ran a 67 charger with a 440

[Cglrcng]

Originally Posted by David Lee

i wonder if we crossed paths. back then i ran a 67 charger with a 440

I remember you David. How have the decades treated you?

https://www.autoimagery.com/gallery-...000jE85nde7IOE

Go to the O.C.I.R. Pic link I posted above. Does that car look familiar to you?

Please disregard the bashed in front grill (the night before that shot was taken at The County, I was in the lanes at Big Willy and Tomika's Outlaw track on Terminal Island and an Altered was right in front of me about 4', and I was in the seat engine off in park (with a car behind me close), when the lane master began pulling our lane, I saw the driver click that altered in reverse and hit the throttle and I hit the brake pedal with both feet, but he drove right up into my grill. The owner (of the altered was right there, he apologized profusely for his driver, paid cash that very night), but it took a couple of years to find another straight grill at Pick-a-Part!

I know that sounds stupid, but very few online pics were ever published that I can find of that car, though I own a bunch of Magazine, N.D. pics/articles, and pics I purchased or took of it personally. Finding that autoimagery site was like gold, but the 1 pic I found of that car that was magic to me back in the day, and yet due to the evident damage, usually embarrasses me to post the link to it.

And that photo was actually taken in 1984 not 1982 which is the database I found it in (the key is the car number shown is 6839 E.T. not my usual 7839 (and that was the 1 year NHRA combined Div. 6 & 7 temporarily into Div. 6). I won the Firestone/Centerline Div. 6 Bracket 3/Heavy championship later that year (October 1984), in that car (a 250 car field at Famoso and my very first Wally. And "The County" our beloved O.C.I.R. in Irvine, CA, was closed forever after the last bracket points race that season. (Dang I miss that track still today!)

Lots of great pics in that database for those that care to peruse it for "back in the day stuff"!

Added:

https://www.autoimagery.com/image?&_...FxKTQ--&GI_ID=

Pete Berkuta's SS/DA Car photo also found in a different O.C.I. R. photo collection, he prepped that White 63 Polara car originally as a bracket car from a junkyard roller build, added a 440/727-B and .430/8-3/4" rear, sold it to Richard Gabaldon who added the lower rear sky blue to cover up after rolling/flaring the rear fenders to fit the wider slicks, and I bought it later from him less than a year later. (The winningest bracket or otherwise car I ever owned... Drove it to and from the track, Fill it up at the Union 76 out on Sand Canyon, (unload the tow bar, slicks and tools in the back seat area and trunk), run it, race it and dial down a hundredth every pass, and just run right on...almost every pass).

I wore out that 440 (a low 11.20 car, but no rollbar or cage so was limited to 5,200 RPM short shifting 12.00 flat@111-113 MPH), over the years (hundreds and hundreds of SoCal passes, I raced all over and 5 days/nights a week some periods), pulled it out just before it blew up one night (it all of a sudden picked up 6/10th's on a semi-final pass for no reason). My uncle wanted to trade me a fully re-built and ready to install 13.5-1 C.R. 383 that came in his Road Runner Factory, as he wanted a 440 6 Pack Edition, so we met with the other finalist, agreed to split the final payout, he got the trophy as a bonus, then we headed to his house in San Diego and pulled out my worn out but still running bullet 9by that time I was burning Grade 60 Valvoline oil, the rings were good, but all the bearings were razor blades)...Dropped in that 383 the next day, fired it up and I drove it home to Anaheim Hills. (A few months later he had his 440 Six Pack car running and was a happy man!) And I did not miss even 1 race day/weekend.

It was sure down on torque, but it squirted off the line, instead of pulling the wheels up, ran the same ET 12.00 flat at 121MPH (a 9 MPH increase just made the top of the bracket car even more deadly), and was just as consistent as it ever was with the 440 in it. (Lotsa fun for many years, and more success than any 1 person ever deserved).

[David Lee]

north or south of lions?

[Cglrcng]

Oh, I forgot...The reason I posted Pete's car. That was the car/driver I faced in the 1984 Div. Finals, final round (His car 426 Wedge motor, 4.88 gears dialed 12 Flat@ 113MPH, my 383, 4.56 gears dialed 12 Flat @ 121MPH at Famoso, as you can see by pic differences it had that wheels up SS/DA type air under the tires and left a lot harder, but when he came back to earth about the Tree I was on his rear quarter with my front tire, and I knew what the finish line was going to look like, no way he could hang with that mile an hour difference. It took to half track to nudge out in front, but wop, wop and an inch apart I took the stripe. (That was 1 of the absolute best heads-up races, I ever participated in). Most others were fast closing rates whether I was chasing, or being chased.

Sry all, a different car, a different class, a different era. Still fun times.

Thank's for the memories.