Taking our project 2006 Chrysler 300C to a land-speed racing event at first doesn’t seem right, does it? It’s too heavy to be that impressive, it’s still pretty much stock, and we haven’t even taken the speed limiter off of the car yet. What could we possibly learn from throwing a car with the aerodynamic properties of a brick down the runway in Wilmington? Was this even safe? Either way, any excuse to go flat-out in a car is good enough for us, so in the weeks prior to the event we had the suspension aligned, monitored tire pressures, replaced the two worn rear tires, emptied all of the crap out of the trunk and started feeding the 5.7L V8 a diet of 93 octane with some fuel injection cleaner to make sure that by the starting line, Grandpa would have a chance of not embarrassing himself in front of everybody.
Our only real concern was with the computer management system. We’ve lamented it before: Chrysler’s computer control systems are full-blown nanny state pieces that do not allow for any real fun, and the 300C’s computer is the most restricted out of all of the Hemi-powered vehicles. Wheelspin is caught as soon as it happens, traction control does not disable, no matter how long or how many times you press the button, and our initial research showed us that the speed limiter on a 5.7-powered Chrysler would hit at about 125 miles an hour. Undeterred, we got the car ready for tech…even if our fun was curbed by the computer, nothing was going to stop us from trying to max out the car.
Running in time-only, we jumped in line and realized how deep we were in. Near us, a late-model Challenger SRT-8 sat on it’s Bogart wheels, looking bonafide evil and ready to rip yet another 170+ MPH run. Behind us, a Bonneville legend, a Studebaker Avanti R3. As car after car left the starting line, nervousness began to set in. Prior to this, we had only barely touched 100 MPH in this car and we had wind. Sure, it was a tailwind, but we still wondered just what would happen if that wind changed. Our flight-training days showed us that a Cessna only needs about 75 miles an hour to take off…but our Chrysler was probably 1,000 lbs. heavier, so we might be good…right?
Finally, we made the line. The in-car footage was from the first run, and the outside footage was the third run:
The first run returned a speed of 129.7952 MPH. I was over the moon initially, believing I had pushed past the speed limiter, but then I remembered the tailwind, so we ran three more times to be sure: 130.2837 for the second run on Saturday, and 129.9827 and 130.0954 on Sunday with warmer weather. It didn’t matter where the wind came from, the 300C was consistent. The first two runs were made with about a quarter-tank of fuel, the last two were made with a full tank and some baggage in the trunk. Every run was the same: the car launches softly off of the line, with the power really coming on halfway through 1st gear and staying in the 3,000-6,000 RPM range in each gear up until 4th, where the speed limiter finally stopped the fun near 4,800 RPM. The Chrysler was extremely planted, with only a little bit of bounce coming through because of the worn-out struts. The EBC brakes worked like a charm and the Magnaflow exhaust speaks for itself.
This is the final “baseline” test for Angry Grandpa. What that means is that we’ve got all stock numbers for our car prior to modifications plus seat time at NCM Motorsports Park for a real-world track test situation. We know that bone-stock the car came with 340HP/390TQ. We saw numbers that closely correlate that at Chickenhawk Motorsport’s dyno. We saw a 14.1@81MPH quarter-mile at London Dragway, and we’ve seen 24MPG on highway driving. So far, nothing that we’ve done to the car has detracted from it’s daily-driver reliability or made the car an unruly bastard, and unless you know what to look for, the Chrysler blends in anywhere. So far, so good, but the next time you see Grandpa, hopefully his new meds will have kicked in nicely.
Nice…………I could see myself driving one of these (or a Charger / Challenger) once this granpa gets tired of fooling with his old Mopar.