The Ford Tempo that Brian ran yesterday got me thinking: most of the cars that were around when I was in my single-digit ages are all but gone. Just between the ages of 5-10, let’s see how many you still might see on the road today: 1984 Chrysler E-class…nope. 1989 Chrysler New Yorker…beaten beyond hope if you do. 1977 Ford Mustang II…unlikely. 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier station wagon…nope. 1990 Ford Aerostar? Just about never. And that is just what was owned…there were Tempos, Hyundai Excels, flying potato Tauruses, and tons more, and you don’t see them around anymore for the most part, let alone anyone doing anything interesting with them. For good reason, too…most of them kind of sucked, and some of them REALLY sucked. But occasionally there was a gem or two in the midst of all of that hubris. Take Ma Mopar in the late 1980s…unless you bought a truck, van, or a Diplomat, you didn’t get a V8, but if you wanted something hot, that could handle pretty well for a front-wheel-drive, and could surprise a 5.0 Mustang, Camaro or Supra, you went for anything that had the word “TURBO” slapped on it. Shelby Daytonas, Chargers and Omnis were stout little beasts. The Dodge Shadow? Unless you had a Shelby CSX or CSX-T…nope. But if you did, you had a wicked little bastard that would run with the big dogs, especially if you knew how to tune EFI and work the turbocharger to your benefit. What does that look like? Take this footage from 2009…this is Brian Slowe’s Shadow “BSX”…don’t ask, Google keeps referring to this particular car, but for good reason. How does a 9.10@149 in the quarter sound?
I don’t know what’s harder – making a K car run 9’s, or making a K-car obviously a hardcore enough race car you’d actually expect that. Kudos for pulling off both.
It is hard to do those things, especially when the car in the video isn’t even a K car. Shadows and Sundances were P bodies.
Brian car has been in the mid 8s before.. keep an eye out this season for some big time changes!