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My confidence in my wrx has gotten me in over my head

5K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  the_guchi 
#1 ·
To begin my father and I have a pretty good relationship. Over the years our bond was formed through the crucible of competition as we have pushed to constantly one up each other. Even to this day we have our own "what is best." He has always been a fanboy for domestics with few ecceptions and I have been in love with JDM since before I could drive. The Supra was the best car ever created!!!

Today he sent me a picture of his new project... He stumbled upon two 1967 Dodge Coronets for 1200 and he purchased a 440 big block for 200. Since one runs already he made the claim that "For less than 1k in the motor I'll smoke any tuner or knock there little *$$ off the road and drive home." So enjoying the jabs at each other I accept his challenge as I "know" my wrx is a highly engined work of art and his rust bucket WWII Tank won't stand a chance. After 5 minutes of research I realize I might have been too cocky on this one. Coronet is 3200lbs and runs 12.1 1/4mi from factory. So depending on what he does with $1k he might make good numbers to one up me. I found that wrx stock was pulling a 13.7 stock. So I tried to talk him into a circuit, but he chose to stick to his guns and said we would run it at the strip.

Our agreement is he only spends $1k and I can spend as much as I would like. Which won't be more than $1-2k. So I ask if I have any hope in victory or will my blue baby even have the chance of a graceful defeat? Staying within an exhaust/intake mod, a faster spooling turbo, and possibly tuning for slightly higher boost can I make this challenge a JDM victory at the strip?

I ask you aid me in this victory! SUBARU FTW!!!! XD
 
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#2 · (Edited)
tell us more about your fathers car first. like what is his gear ratio & does he have LSD or Locked diff? whats the engine got in it? does it have a better cam, roller rockers, valve retainers? what youre trying to do might not even be posible.

you will need alot of money to get a EJ into the 11 second bracket. alot more than $2000.... add a zero. also start stripping your interior. and i mean everything... seats, carpet, headliner... youre going to need all the weight loss you can get.

i figure you'll need to break into 11's if your pops is alerady running 12.1. $1000 in slicks and some free engine tweaking will get that coronet into the 10's no problem. unless slicks are not allowed for this little competition you got going. even then, 10's on street legal radials is not hard at all for a 440 coronet.
 
#3 ·
You need to work on your starting line launch. You should have him on the run for the first half or so.

What are you at for power now? Are you tuned? What are your mods?

And final question is.... how much does winning the bet mean to you? :D
 
#4 ·
@titter Well as for the coronet, my dad sent me two pictures of a couple of rusted out cars and was bragging about $1000 and he could smoke me with the one that has all the parts. All I know is that he is putting in a 440 into a "stock" coronet. He didn't say that the coronet had parts and seeing the condition I would say that the coronet doesn't have any parts that are worth running. Also due to the price I would say he didn't buy an almost complete project car. So he is starting with a 440 and a rustbucket project.
@GSMNZ I am at stock now w/o a tune and the only mods the car has is the driver.. XD So with that said this would be a fresh build for both of us. For your final question I have never went easy on the ol'man. My determination to win has almost got me injured/killed in a few races on quads/bikes. Regardless though I would do basically anything to win even in a simple accell race. I don't like drag racing, but I will still do what it takes to win.

Another thought I had was to buy a stripped rolling 2.5RS and source a motor for it. I am not sure if running my 2012 wagon would be worth it since I daily it and drive my kids around in it. I will see if I can get a shot of the engine bay and post it.

So even if I did full exhaust, 16G, intake, tune, and optimized everything I would still not be able to hit 11s? I was hoping that by getting a faster spool and coming on to boost before 3k I would be able to engage the clutch and start to spool, ideally at 2500.
 
#5 · (Edited)
its not the car im worried about. its the engine. a mild cam (they only have 1), some ported venturii's for the carb, and dial in some timing with good fuel and you can easily add 200-300hp for $1000 if you know what your doing on a big block.

coronets are like the civic of the 70's. they were small and light. yes back in the 70s that was considered small and light. 3200lbs is rediculously light for a car in the 70's. heck thats lighter that the stock curb weight of my 02 wagon.

he'll easily be pushing 11's and what you listed will not get you there. youre into drag racing now. high HP dyno numbers mean nothing. its all about power to weight and getting that power to the ground.

without sounding douchey... i came from the big block world, and most of my buddies are running built big block V8's and im doing the same... trying to keep up... its possible but its not cheap. heck one of my buddies has a 10s fox body mustang with a chevy crate motor running it. but its a drag car on slicks (not road legal) but hes now building another mustang for the street...aiming for 11's... and that pretty much my competition. both of which are N/A. no nos, supercharger, turbo, meth... nothing but all motor.
 
#6 ·
Well I can tell you in my car I drive around with the wife an kids an go to Meets to do autox and to the drag strip. Its my daily as well :) Now what I am about to give for advice I wouldn't do... if you had more time and better funds I would go a more different route that was safer for your internals.

5 Things:

Full exhaust system

Tires - You need to be fast off the line. Traction is a must.

Drop Weight - Take out everything you can think of. It can be put back in if you want after. I personally dropped A/C and all components with it as well as power steering.

Nitrous - Although even if you were build up your motor it would be tough on it. Using Nitrous throughout all the gears would get you where you want. Now some people with bad experiences and lack of knowledge of nitrous might pipe up here. But a tuned set-up with nitrous will "be safe" to use. I use the "quotations" because anything you do to your motor to make more power shortens the life of it and every motor even with the same exact parts will last a different amount of time.

Tune - Get everything dialed in for an aggressive tune. Will your motor last... idk... but this is what it will take if you want the cheapest fastest set-up to beat his car.
 
#7 ·
you can underdrive your gearing with smaller tires. its the same as lowering your final drive. your speedo will be off, but you will accelerate faster as the cost of top speed. run 235/40R17. at 60kph on the speedo you will be doing 58.6kph for roughly a 2.2% increase.
 
#10 ·
A 16G will run 11s with a good driver on E85. However that turbo is such a minuscule upgrade compared to your stock turbo that it's not worth it. In terms of drag racing you would want to run a larger turbo. Being able to hold boost until redline is more important to straight line speed. And that's something small turbos can struggle to do.
 
#13 ·
Sorry to let this thread die off. I worked on my launch and burnt my clutch. I have not had the funds to do much to the car that is noticeable since the wife freaked out when I told her about this bet. I have an AP v2, k&n panel filter, and that is basically it. I should be getting more funds freed up before I head home and see my dad. We live in different states so I have some time.

I told him we could rally and he said no, I said do it like the Duke boys with another no, he also declined road course. He said 1/4 mile only.

My saving grace is my rebellios 16yo little brother. While my dad was at work, night shift, he went out to the shop and out of boredom ripped the 440 apart. Come time for school he found that out of all the super clean parts he pulled there was a bent rod. So my Dad doesn't have a running 440 to destroy me with.

@titter I read up on that turbo link you put in another thread about a td04L swap and I feel a 16g might not be ideal. I have to do some more searching but 18g is as much as I'm going because I don't need a large turbo.

If it's worth much my stinkeye is stilling running, even after I beat on it on a mtn pass or two... So I think that means I'm winning as long as he doesn't replace the rod.
 
#14 ·
18g and a good diet might get you to the 11's. Blouch makes a good range of stock location turbos.

this is the one you probably want: Subaru WRX/STi 18G-XT-R Turbocharger with a 8cm hotside. you can stay 2.4" inlet so it will drop right in. if you opt for the 3" compressor inlet you will need a new turbo inlet hose.

the difference between the XT and the XT-R are the bearings. in the blouch line of turbos, the R stands for "roller bearing" aka ball bearing. so the XT's are journal bearings and the XT-R's are ball bearing. get the XT-R
 
#15 ·
also... if he insists on 1/4 mile, make sure you're both on street tires. no slicks. it really wont be fair with slicks. even if he says u can run slicks. you dont want to run slicks. you want a bit of slip off the line in a AWD car or else you bog down and mess your launch.
 
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