You are damn skippy that I was going to take the new and improved Chrysler out to Beech Bend the first chance I got! After thrashing earlier in the week to give old Gramps a bit more get-up-and-go, the Chrysler found itself at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky at high noon, facing a date with destiny. With fresh heads, cam, gears, a converter and a ton more work thrown in just for good measure, we were looking to make great strides in quarter mile times and speeds.

Prior to the runs, Grandpa’s fastest time had been a 14.03 at 99.7 miles an hour. That figure was run at ChallengerFest 7 in April of this year, on a cool day that saw density altitudes in the -2,000 ft. range. Right off of the bat, we were at a disadvantage…instead of the cool air I had been banking on earlier in the week, Saturday’s temps were in the mid-80s and the surface temperature at the starting line was nice and cooking. Crap. Ok, we can still work around that…major improvement over that 14-second timeslip would be acceptable. Having nearly a full tank of fuel and all of the interior in the car, plus jack and spare, didn’t help matters. So, excuses aside, how’d we do?

The answer: [email protected] MPH, and more infuriatingly, a sixty-foot time that wouldn’t dip below two seconds if the car had a JATO rocket crammed in the trunk, lit. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, either. The first run, I’ll admit that I launched the car way too soft. The second run, I stalled the converter at about 1,700 RPM and rolled into the power…it got slower, but at least I killed an SN-95 Mustang that had been revving like he wanted to fight. After each run I was in contact with Erik at BFNY Performance, trying to get answers. You’ll recall that we played it very safe with the timing advance on the car, so after a two-hour cool-down, we switched the main tune over to one that fully shut down every electronic traction nanny on the car, put three degrees of timing in the 1,000-3,000 RPM range and lined up. The result was one hell of a burnout, the kind that leaves you giggling like an idiot and the car smelling like roasted Firestones. I lined up, walled the converter at 2,000 and launched the car with extreme prejudice, shifting manually. Nothing doing, the Chrysler just wasn’t wanting to run the number.

To say I was disappointed in the numbers is an understatement. But Grandpa has another chance at redemption when we go to ATCO Dragway on November 12th. We expect cooler air, we will gut the interior out, and if I can get my hands on some front-runner wheels and tires, we might make a good show out of it. We will have Erik on-hand to help dial the car in better, and there might be a bit of race fuel dumped into the tank just to make sure the engine lives.

Grandpa is going to run a good number. We aren’t giving up that easily.