Automotive

Up until around 2016 or so, I primarily drove these quirky "Turbo Mopars" employing Chrysler's 2.2L turbocharged powertrain.  My last daily driver of this type was a 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z C/S.  The car was a bit of a basket case when I got it, but it was eventually sorted out: the frame was straightened, the floor pans replaced, and the powertrain and interior were upgraded.  It was a very fun and comfortable car to drive (for a Turbo-Mopar anyway).  Eventually I had to let it go, as it just wasn't practical to use a 30+ year-old car as a daily.

My previous daily driver from 1995 through 2002 was a 1988 Dodge Shadow ES.  It was laid to rest due to a fatal case paint peel and floorpan/frame rust.  It had been in a few collisions over its life and it just wasn't worth saving.  Prior to that, I drove a 1987 Dodge Shadow Turbo and a 1987 Plymouth Sundance Turbo.  I had a thing for these particular cars (the "P-body", in Turbo-Mopar parlance), especially the first generation (1987-1988).

Back when I first graduated from college, I strongly desired the ultimate first-generation P-body: the 1987 Shelby CSX.  After some searching and waiting for the right car in my price range, I found Shelby CSX #694 of 750.  It has mainly been a project car, though it has had to step in as a daily from time to time.  This is the last of these cars that I still own.

Chrysler had an interesting relationship with Carroll Shelby in the late 1980s.  While the resulting vehicles were never taken very seriously in muscle car circles, a great online community did form around them.  The discourse has moved from mailing lists to online Forums to (unfortunately) Facebook Groups, but the community itself still exists.  The Shelby-Dodge Auto Club still holds an annual convention to this day.

In the dark recesses of the Internet lies an ancient tome of knowledge that (according to the server logs) people still visit for some reason: Mini-Mopar Resources.

The CSX: August 15, 2002

Posted on August 15, 2002.

Another few months since the last update (better than almost 2 years).  Not much has changed with the car except that it has been my daily driver since the trans blew on the Shadow in early June.  On a positive note, I now have all the parts needed to restore the suspension.  On an even more positive note, we now own a home and I have a garage! The mighty resurrection will surely follow soon....

The Shadow: February 19, 2002

Posted on February 19, 2002.

Not much has changed with this car, since I have no where to work on it now.  We hope to buy a house this year, so all of that will eventually change.  Other than the continuing paint-peel saga, this car has been running well.  The only real problem I had was when the center contact distributor cap burned off.  The engine was running a little rough, which turned out to be because the spark was arching 1/4 inch from the primary to the rotor.  How's that for a strong ignition system! Next will be the transmission (the bearings are starting to howl), but I still have the spare A520 from the CSX.  This car also got flooded twice last year, but I was able to dry it out and it seems to have survived OK.

The CSX: February 19, 2002

Posted on February 19, 2002.

Long time, no update.  Now that I am living in an apartment, little has changed with this car.  Stills runs pretty good, but the trip back from SDAC with those bad tires ruined what was left of the original struts.  To become safe for the roads, the cars needs struts/shocks (probably Konis), lower ball joints, tires, and bushings (polyurethane).  In its current condition, the car becomes rather unstable above 50mph, but I still take it on the 5 minute drive to work to keep it alive.  The motor is still the same, piston slap and all.  Still makes good power, though.  The car also got flooded when our parking lot flooded twice last year.  I was able to dry it out, but now I find that it leaks water in the rain.  Grrr....

Call me Mr. P-Body

Posted on July 03, 2001.

I swore I'd never make a web page about my cars, but many have been perplexed about my choices in automotive purchasing.  This page is for you, for other people that are into cars, and also for people who are extremely bored and have nothing better to do but read about other people's lives and interests.  Feel free to comment about it, but please only send funny flames.

This page is dedicated to my bizarre obsession with Chrysler's P-body cars.  These cars include the Dodge Shadow, the Plymouth Sundance, and the Shelby CSX.  I have owned or currently own each of these at some point.  I don't like what Chrysler did to the P-bodies in 1989 when they changed the front grill and headlight arrangement and the rear trim and taillights.  So, I stuck with the '87s and '88s.  I got into this type of car because my parents own two Chrysler turbo cars: my mother has a 1986 Chrysler LeBaron GTS Turbo and my father owns a 1987 Dodge Daytona Turbo.  I liked driving both of them and even the LeBaron could hold it's own in a few minor racing incidents.  I learned a lot about the engines because of a semi-frequent head gasket problem with the LeBaron.  We eventually figured that one out (see my page on it).  Other than that, these engines seem to run forever.  The LeBaron has over 230,000 miles on it (as of 07/08/98) and the Daytona has over 186,000 miles on it.  Both still have the original turbos.  They both got a little rod knock at 180,000 and the LeBaron was rebuilt around that time (but it still ran fine and didn't burn any oil).

Though I was driving (legally) as early as 1991, it wasn't until two years later that I seriously needed to get car since I would be commuting to college the following fall.  I wasn't on the Internet back then (nor was anyone else, really), so I didn't have the resources we all have now.  I was checking the Chicago Tribune and Auto Trader every week.  I liked our '86 LeBaron GTS, so I was interested in one of those, but the few leads I found were either not in my price range or in pretty bad shape.  Then I saw an ad for a car that I had read about while researching the various late-80s cars out there.  I had never seen one up close, but I wanted to buy it as soon as I saw and drove it.

So, the first car I ever owned I bought in May of 1993.  It was a 1987 Plymouth Sundance Turbo 5 speed coupe, black with the burgundy interior, sunroof, and power everything.  I had a blast driving it around and I got plenty of speeding tickets doing so.  I was pretty hard on the car when I owned it and starting January 1, 1994, it started taking it's toll.  That morning while driving home late, the car went into a spin when I tried to avoid a car that was in my lane as I went around a curve of a back road.  I was tired, but completely sober; but this guy, I don't know.  The ground was covered with rock-salt from a recent snowfall.  I couldn't recover the car and I hit some small trees while going backwards on the opposite side.  He never stopped.  Anyway, the car had extensive rear end damage, but somehow I got it out of the ditch and drove it home: rear-end smashed, bumper hanging.  Somehow, my father was able to straighten out the panels (quite a feat) and I installed new taillights and fixed-up the bumper.  I intended to bondo the panels the next summer and bring it up to snuff.  Unfortunately, that May my stupidity killed the car for good when I slipped in gravel and slid into a ditch while taking a turn a bit too fast (read: way too fast).  As the car flew into the ditch, it hit the top edge of a concrete retainer wall that was sticking out of the ground by about 12 inches.  The forward frame was completely twisted up and the transmission had a hole in it.  I reported the accident to the insurance company (since I had full coverage), and they totaled it (and promptly dropped me).  Here are the only pictures I have of it, after the final accident:

You may notice that the left-front wheel (wearing the spare tire since the original was completely bent up) seems to be further back than it should be.  The entire left part of the K-frame and control arm was bent back about 6 inches.  You can see why it was totaled, but I got $2200 for it, even with the unrepaired, rear-end damage.

The rest of the summer of 1994 I spent looking for another car to replace the Sundance.  I had $2200 of insurance money, but I was running out of time.  I would have loved to find a Shelby CSX (I had read about them), but I couldn't find one anywhere.  The next best thing would have been a '87 or '88 Shadow ES, but I couldn't find any of those either.  Towards the end of the summer I was getting desperate (the fall semester was going to start), so I settled for a 1987 Dodge Shadow Turbo I had found.  It was a red, two door with a light grey interior an automatic transmission.  It didn't have power windows, but it had "power everything else" and a sunroof, which I like.  The auto trans made the car quite sluggish most of the time, which was disappointing.  It was pretty good off the line, but after about 40 mph, it was pretty slow going.  But, it ran good and it got me where I needed to go.

The following summer (1995), my sister was in the market for a car.  She wanted something reliable with an automatic.  Since we've had so much experience with these engines, she agreed that a Chrysler would be a good thing to get.  I took the opportunity to look for a car again and she agreed to buy mine, if I found one.

I eventually found a car and sold the Shadow to her.  She got in an minor fender bender with it and so it ended up with a Sundance hood.  The car also acquired some strange problems over time, including a blockage in the oil line to the head because of a disintegrated oil filter (never buy Fram), some electrical problems because of some corrosion under the dash from a leaky windshield, and a perpetually blown fusible link, which has been solved.

Eventually (winter 2001), the engine got a terminal case of rod knock.  The car always had a persistent pinging problem that we never resolved.  The problem was tough to find because it would come and go.  This probably contributed to the rod bearing failure.  Interestingly, she sold the car for $200 to a guy at work. The car had at least that much money in tires on it. Unfortunately, I never got a picture of it.  She now drives my father's 1987 Dodge Daytona (2.2 Turbo I, manual trans, over 220,000 miles!).

Anyway, later during the summer of 1995, I found the car.  It wasn't the Shelby CSX I always wanted, but it was the next best thing.  Through the Chicago Tribune Online, I found a 1988 Dodge Shadow ES Turbo 5 speed coupe that a woman was selling in downtown Chicago.  The information about this car has grown such that to read about it, you need to have a look at my 1988 Dodge Shadow ES page.

I like my Shadow a lot, but I never satisfied that desire for a Shelby CSX.  After being a member of the Shelby-Dodge Mailing List (SDML) for a couple of years, I decided that it was the route to go if I ever wanted to get that CSX.  Well, on June 24, 1998, after some negotiating and waiting, I committed to buy the 1987 Shelby CSX #694 from a fellow SDMLer near San Fransisco.  I had to have the car shipped to me in Illinois (quite an expensive venture), but it was worth it.  To hear that story, visit my 1987 Shelby CSX page.

The CSX: July 13, 2000

Posted on July 13, 2000.

SDAC-10 = the best time I have ever had with cars in my entire life.  I finally got to put faces to some of the names that I have known for years now.  The Chicagoland folks were probably the rowdiest bunch there.

The highlight was definitely the performance driving school.  It was done at Michigan Speedway (NASCAR).  The road course included almost a full mile of track oval, allowing me to achieve speeds of over 120 MPH! My 3rd session was in the pouring rain, which resulted in a spin-out on one lap and some hydroplaning through the cones on turn 1 on the lap after.  Not long after I flew through the cones, someone smashed their nice 1987 Shelby GLHS into the wall on turn 1 due to hydroplaning as well.  Big bummer.

My first trip to the drag strip went fairly well.  My time slips are below.  The only things I did to the car were empty the trunk and remove the muffler.  I drove very consistent low-15s most for the day.  The ND Computer was only giving me 13-14psi of boost (should be 16), so I borrowed a G-valve.  Unfortunately, the ball was not seating and I only got 3-4psi and ran high 16s.  I fixed the G-valve and set my boost to 18psi.  The engine would break-up real bad above 4700 RPM.  The 8th light on the A/F gauge was flashing at those speeds, so I raised the fuel pressure.  I also gapped the plug down a bit.  From then on, I couldn't get traction (see my 60-foot times).  I finally got a run in the 14s with 20psi of boost: 14.918 sec @ 94.68 mph.  I KNOW the car can do deep 14s if I could just hook it up.  The treads on my tires were full of track rubber because I couldn't find a clean spot.  All in all, I had a great time.

I certainly got a lot of runs, as the track was not busy at all.  I wish the track stayed open after the SDAC events for more runs.  Many of the other drag racers were having car troubles and everyone seemed to have trouble with traction.  Anyway, it was a blast.  I'll definitely try to bring the car to more local events to work on my launch techniques.