K cars

AJ/FormS said:

I was kidding, but now you pressed my button, lol.

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A hobby of mine.

AJ/FormS said:

don't want no buzzbomb, must be V8-RWD or nothing... Make mine a manual.

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I find the mopar 4cyls sound very fun. It's less of a "Honda butt kazoo" sound and more like "legos in a farmall powered blender".





Turbo 2.2/2.5L makes the same or more peak power than an NA SBM. All you're giving up is some torque prior to boost... which you didn't need anyway because the car is only 1 ton and doesn't reach 1:1 until 4th gear. RWD would be very nice but it's a heavy investment to convert these plaftorms. The FWD 60ft is not conducive to low ETs (Although some have embraced the challenge). These little cars are far better suited to highway blasts and backroad twisties.

AJ/FormS said:

Oh wait, wasn't there a Chrysler F-wagon at one time?

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Yeah but they start around 3500lbs and handle like... your wife's mother.






Here's mine. L body. Gutted, Koni coilovers, Kosei K1 15" wheels, big swaybars, 2.2L 8valve ported with a hogged out Turbonetics Super60 @ 20psi. It's an absolute blast to drive. Just take the Advil ahead of time.

I bought a 83 Horizon that needed a side and a windshield for $1200 with 20k in 85. I kept it until probably 90, I used it as a shop car for a couple of years. It was a stick and the wife didn't like driving it but it was a good pos.

Come to think of it I had a 79 also with a vw motor in it, I just repaired that one and sold it.

Well, It's been about 7 years. About time to resurrect the old turbo deathbox...





My brother rolled one of his Shelby CSX Shadows a couple years back and made a parts car. That turbo might be bad luck. I'll wear a seatbelt... mostly for laughs.

Stretching it out a little at 4psi...



No codes. No leaks. Just a whole lot of noise and smells and ugly.

Don't ask me why, but some things leave lasting imprints in your mind for no reason whatsoever. I was a kid walking into the town Big Boy's to get something to eat. Mom had to park in the back of the building. Walking up there was a car parked at the rear employee exit of the building that had a bumper sticker that read, 'Shit Box from Hell!' This was 25 years ago...

Why the story? Because this came flying into the front of my mind from buried deep in the wastes of all the useless shit I've remembered upon seeing the video of your K. This car needs that exact same bumper sticker. I love it and not sarcastically speaking. I would drive the hell out of that thing.

Ever run it at the track? What has been done motor wise?

2.2L 8valve TII. Forged pistons, upgraded rods, bigger injectors, 20psi ECU. Isuzu truck intercooler. Daytona brakes and trans with a 3.50 ring gear. Koni adjustable coilovers. Big sway bars. It comes in under 2000lbs and makes over 300hp in high boost.

I don't think I've ever had this one on a drag strip. My last one with a similar setup ran high 11s.

I had two Horizon's a 79 and a 83, this was back in 85. My wife drove the 83 for three years, it was a good cheap durable car. In 1989 I sold it for a few dollars more than I had in it with another 60k on the clock.
One thing it wasn't was fast.

Thats pretty cool, ive a little twin stick turbo colt with only a few mods and it does ok at 14 psi, not the power of a jacked 2.2 but its 400lbs lighter.

if I had a colt it would have a 360 and a 2-speed; first gear for city, and second for everything else. Oh, and wheelie-bars. and no back seat either. and probably tubs and ladder bars. and a window in the floor, and I mighta cut it up the middle and made it a tad wider,lol.

I test drove the first year Daytona Turbo in 1984. The car had made a lot of magazine covers when it came out.

Sales guy was in the passenger seat. Driving it along, car felt very under-powered. I told the sales guy that I wasn't interested, car was so under-powered. He said drive to this road in an industrial park. We did. He said to get to about 40 km/h, and then floor it. Got it to speed, and floored it. At first, nothing. As soon as it hit about 3000 rpm, it grows an extra 4 cylinders and time to hang on. My first experience with turbos, and turbo lag.

Where I live and travel, I see the K-car body style fairly often. Usually they are in Ok shape. I probably see one in regular use at least once a month. They do show up in estate sales, and if you're a doorbell ringer, you'll find them gathering dust in carports where seniors have died or quit driving. I saw many of them in Phoenix area, vegas area etc. too

Way back I was actually pulled over (rather I stopped) by 3 different K cars. One time I was on the interstate late at night and got hit with an instant on radar and he had to flip around. Had I known it was a K car id of just nailed the next exit.

Another was for drag racing downtown by a detective and during the lecture he got a shooting call and had to run off.

And I dont really recall the third, oh yea.... not a good idea to yell a racial comment out the window to a K car driver, many were driven by cops. God I bet they hated them.

A lot of Military bases had them. We were mandated to buy Chrysler products for many years. We must have bought several hundred thousand Dodge vans, but they were really good for the money. A lot of the stripper sedans were hit or miss, but they were in the system so we kept buying them. They were all better than the Fairmonts and early Luminas though. Some big cities had K cars. I think Miami did, almost sure I saw them for a few years. DC had Ford Escorts and St Pete had Gremlins for K9

kkritsilas said:

I test drove the first year Daytona Turbo in 1984. The car had made a lot of magazine covers when it came out.

Sales guy was in the passenger seat. Driving it along, car felt very under-powered. I told the sales guy that I wasn't interested, car was so under-powered. He said drive to this road in an industrial park. We did. He said to get to about 40 km/h, and then floor it. Got it to speed, and floored it. At first, nothing. As soon as it hit about 3000 rpm, it grows an extra 4 cylinders and time to hang on. My first experience with turbos, and turbo lag.

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I drove a new Ford probe turbo with a salesman and he was talking about how hard it ran, I told him I had a 10 second mopar and this car was a dog, it never did come alive.

Had two K-cars a Dodge 600 and a Plymouth Acclaim, the Acclaim was a much better built car, though it was alot plainer, then the 600 was, the 600 was also a convertible which was fun though it would've been more fun if the seats weren't vinyl...both a had 2.5s and were automatics, I couldn't help noticing that both transmissions seemed to hate being in second gear, it would shift into 3rd almost a second after shifting into 2nd, my brother had a Dodge Spirit and it did the same thing, though the transmissions were very reliable as we're the engines (though I remember having issues with the throttle body)

Oh hey I built one of those back in 2005...



2.2L with the 16V Lotus head and a T3/T4 50-Trim making 25psi and nearly 400whp. Left it with my highschool girlfriend when we split. It's undergone changes but she kept racing it...



13 years later and living up to the old Q-SHIP plate at Hot Rod Drag Week...

That thing deserves a cote of color!

Wind burns.

...or late 80s low-VOC problems.

All the manufacturers had the same problem and that was they couldcou get the color coat to adhere to the primer. The primer cured to fast in the paint process, at least that's what we were told back in the day.

I got one of the first ’87 Daytona Shelby’s, with a 2.2L (135 ci) Turbo II 5-speed built (facelift with new engine). With the leather seats and T-tops – it was one heavy car (maybe 4,000 lb. / 1,800 kg). WOT (Wide Open Throttle) from a stop, you were getting nowhere fast (err, slow) sense it was too much car, not enough engine. After about 30 MPH and turbo had a chance to breath, the car turned into a rocket. I even got into a race in about ’90 or so, with a friend with a Ninja 1000 motorcycle (not sure of exact model). We started at a roll at about 50 MPH. We were still even when we got to about 130, or so (but started to run out of road).

If that car was put on a serious diet (no T-tops, no ground effects, no leather, etc.) it would be a screamer from a standstill. The way it was, you might as well be in a race with a Mustang 5.0 (or whatever) with you on a bicycle. By the time you got to about 30 MPH (or 88, in a DMC) all you saw was small dots for taillights.

Sense my car was intercooled, it was different driving around town with. There was no noticeable turbo lag like most turbocharged cars had back then. The force applied to the seat (power) was very smooth and not noticeable. Power snuck up on you. The car had to be driven a lot differently than most other cars because of that.
I had friends that would drive the car (who normally drove NA sticks) and I’d say drive normal in-town driving. Then I’d ask them to look at the speedometer. When they glance down and say how did I get to 60 (or 70) MPH (in a 40-45 zone) – because of the difference in “perceived power”.
It took me several speeding tickets before I realized just how to keep from getting speeding tickets. Mainly because you would think you are doing 30-40 MPH – but you’re not (closer to double that) and you are not even trying to go fast.
The trick is not to keep your gas petal in one position. Every gear change, you need to taper off the gas way in advance. You would also have to lay off the gas petal about 1-2 seconds before shifting, or you will over-rev during the shift (so much boost backed up on a WOT takeoff). Also you need to get it shifted into 5th gear way too early which also helped to keep your speed down.
BudW