Mopar goes Road Racing

When it came to circuit racing the IMSA was one of the big hitters in America.  2.2 litre Dodges built up quite a history racing in various series between '83 and '90 ...

Above: this is how Joe Varde's Shelby Charger looks today, Below: the car as used in advertising

Starting from 1983, when the "Shelby" 103hp version of the 2.2 was available, Dodge encouraged the use of their cars in motorsport with advertising and a set of 'How to' booklets, which included one on the subject of building a Charger for IMSA competition.  Joe Varde raced his factory-backed #01 Shelby Charger with great success in the '83 season, getting six wins in the ProFormance class for front-wheel drive cars, one of which was the first overall win for an American FWD car in the RS series.

Above: Inside the Varde Charger, note the extensive rollcage and fuel cell

Below: The engine bay of an IMSA clubman racer, with Webber carbs and tubular header 

The race preparation involved on Varde's car was extensive.  It started with an empty 'body in white', adding a full rollcage extending through the front firewall to the top of the shock towers and connecting to the back chassis legs in the trunk, as well as to the rear shock towers.  Solid engine mounts and a tubular header were added, along with an adjustable brake master cylinder.  The stock shocks / struts were replaced with coilovers and on the inside a fabricated dash was installed and a bracket made up to allow vertical steering wheel adjustment.  All the switchgear was fitted to a piece of sheetmetal neatly welded to the centre front diagonal of the rollcage, putting them in easy reach.

Above: Some of the former IMSA RS cars have been raced in other series after retirement

In addition to the standard race preparation, thanks to the factory backing, Varde's car recieved some special parts, including a straight-cut close-ratio gearbox and a twin side-draft Webber carburettor setup.  Some of the parts would be available to privateers later, through Mopar Performance.  Varde himself went on to race many more Mopars, eventually driving one of the Dodge Vipers in the Petit LeMans series.

Above: Factory backed Daytonas, Carroll Shelby looks over carb tuning of a 2bbl Holley setup on the cover of the 1985 Mopar Performance catalogue 

For 1984 Dodge were keen to promote their new sporty car, the Daytona.  To this end the factory backing went into racing Daytonas which, being larger and heavier, weren't as competitive.  After the previous year's success, however, several private entries took part in Chargers.

Above: Charger and Daytona one the pole at Daytona  Below: Charger at Pocono 

Unfortunately for Dodge, however, their efforts would be cut short as regulation changes made their 2.2 cars uncompetitive.  Many of the racecars were then put into service in other racing series, and today some are elegable for historic competition in RS series reunion races.

In 1988 Shelby supplied Thrifty car rental with CSX-T cars, to help promote their use two specially constructed CSXs were supplied by Chrysler for Thrifty to enter into the IS Sedan Class, numbered 29⁹⁵ and 34⁹⁵ to reflect the street car's rental costs.  Unlike the street cars they ran intercooled Turbo II engines and did not have sunroofs.  One of the cars was driven by the president of Thrifty and after competition it was refurbished and given to him by Chrysler as thanks for the publicity they recieved from the cars.

At the same time Dodge put a lot of money into Daytonas built for the high-dollar GTU series.  Unlike the cars that had come before they bore very little resemblance to their production car counterparts, being a scratch built spaceframe chassis with a fibreglass body.  Under the skin they featured fully independant double-wishbone suspension with coilover struts at the front and remote resevoir shocks out back, coupled to vented disks all round with large 4-piston calipers.  The front end and the back from the doors rearward were both removeable as one piece, and the back suspension and brakes could be removed as a unit, making the front and rear-wheel drive cars interchangeable at short notice.  The doors weren't operational but could be removed to do servicing work.

In 1988 three factory-backed cars were entered for competition.  The first two by Full Time Racing, headed up by Kal Showket, with numbers 00 and 07 in black and yellow Dodge Motorsports livery, plus number 53 in red and white 'Team Shelby' livery.  The number 53 car can be seen today in the Walter P. Chrysler museum.  There was also an independant entry at Columbus, number 8, sponsored by Advanced Aire*.  The Dodge Motorsports cars continued in competition through to the end of the 1990 season, not only with a modicum of success in points standings but also as proof that front-wheel drive cars can be competitive at the higher levels of motorsport.**

Above: the Consulier GTP, a 2.2 powered supercar 

That was to be the last forray into factory backed IMSA racing for Dodge until the use of the Viper GTS in endurance racing.  There was, however, one more conquest for the Mopar 2.2 litre engine in IMSA racing - the Supercar World series.  Consulier entered four Series II GTP cars, all powered by Turbo II engines, into the 1991 championship and proceded to wipe the floor with the more upmarket competitors.  On their debut at Lime Rock they got pole position and won, having 195hp and weighing in at only 2100lbs the GTPs had a definite edge against their more powerful and heavier competitors.  The IMSA then announced that it was not in the best interests of the series for Consulier to win, making them sandbag the cars to the tune of 300lbs.  When the cars continued winning they were then banned from competition, and that was that!

* If you have further information on this, or any of the other IMSA Dodge racecars, please let us know!

** The Dodge Motorsports cars were identical, except that one was front-wheel drive, the other was rear-wheel drive.  You can read the comparison review HERE .

Wikipedia: IMSA | Joe Varde