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2015 Year In Review: We Take A Look At Our Two In-House Mopar Projects And The Progress…And Lack Thereof…We Have Made!


2015 Year In Review: We Take A Look At Our Two In-House Mopar Projects And The Progress…And Lack Thereof…We Have Made!

The sun is setting on 2015, and what a year it has been. From the moment the weather hinted at warming up…and the second Lohnes finally dug himself out of ass-deep snow…we have been running non-stop over the year and it seems that we have once again blown the warm months covering shows, events, races, and whatever else we can get to and have neglected our projects. That brings us to the brink of winter, and our downtime. After the upcoming PRI show in Indy, we go into hibernation mode…okay, Brian and I go into hibernation mode, Chad just pairs his shorts and flip-flops with a hoodie….and we start our wrenching on our piles of junk in earnest.

angry grandpa dyno

On my end, we have BangShift’s two Mopar projects: Angry Grandpa, our gold 2006 Chrysler 300C, and Raven, our 1983 Imperial. Grandpa has had a fairly busy year: in addition to putting in just about 15,000 miles of driving since the start of the year, the Gold Brick had fuel tank get replaced under a factory recall, some neat pieces from Spectre and Billet Technology find their way under the hood, EBC brakes replacing the well-worn factory stock rotors and pads, and were rewarded with our fairly stock daily driver pushing the limits of legality at Wilmington, where it consistently ran 130 miles an hour during the June ECTA meet, five miles an hour under the roll bar rule, and five miles an hour faster than the factory speed limiter should have allowed. Since then, other than a new set of rear tires (heh, heh) the Chrysler has been left alone to daily beater duties. We need to do the timing chain soon and have contemplated putting in a hotter cam and just maybe, a set of heads and 6.1 exhaust manifolds for some added fun…we will see how that works out with our budget, but make no mistake, we will be prodding the old codger for some more speed. That 5.7 Hemi has plenty of potential left in it. We also might be bracket-racing Grandpa at ChallengerFest 7!

raven-engine-out

On the other end of the scale is the Raven Imperial. The progress on the Silver Brick could be measured with a sundial. We haven’t had a lot going on ever since we tore down the 400ci big-block we sourced out of a semi-trailer stash, mainly because the engine has been in machine shop purgatory ever since early June. Other than selling the stock ultra-plush mouse-fur carpet to a guy who wanted gray instead of Sinatra’s Eyes Blue, the Imperial has really only been keeping part of my in-laws’ driveway pinned to the earth. After buying a house later in the summer, Raven got set onto the back burner as I became Bob the Builder. Now that the house is done and we are moved in, it’s time to look at the Imperial with fresh eyes. We are still set on jamming the big-block where it doesn’t belong, but first things first: we need to know if the damage our 4o0 sustained during storage is repairable or if our block is toast. We plan on addressing that very shortly, stay tuned. We are also kicking around some other ideas for the car, including a possible manual-transmission swap. It can be done, but we have to source the right parts…namely pedals from a Dodge Aspen or Plymouth Volaré, which are very hard to come by. I’m expecting to get back to work on Raven after the holidays in earnest…I miss driving the barge a lot and want that roar back in my ears.


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One thought on “2015 Year In Review: We Take A Look At Our Two In-House Mopar Projects And The Progress…And Lack Thereof…We Have Made!

  1. V12 guy

    You know, that Imperial is a neat looking car (IMO) “I” would put a used 5.7 hemi in it with OD trans, make the air and everything work correctly, and enjoy driving it.
    Maybe after a while a supercharger or turbo, all under that long, long factory hood.

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