A small update. We have now installed the door glass and the windows are working, the fuel system has been trial fitted and the car is now being prepped for paint. That will take awhile. the new Indy block was taken in to a machine shop for drilling the oil channels for the lifters. However, it was slightly screwed up..., the drill bit ended up to the cam tunnel on the drivers side in the two last lifter holes. Just have to block the channel before them and propably have them oiled with a tube from the other side. On monday the block will go into a machine shop for final honing, and then a week after that in to another for sleeving the lifter holes. Once that is done we should be able to start putting the engine together. That is, if the lifters and rockers arrive...
Since not much happening at the moment I'll put here the story of the car for those that like to read to the point I have written it... it's also in the facebook but buries there under all stuff.
VIP story #1
Since the story of the “hero” is propably unknown to at least our international friends, here is the first part of the story:
It’s year 1967. Finland, one of only two countries in Europe taking part in WW2 while retaining unoccupied, is still mentally and financially recovering from the sufferings of the lost war against Soviet Union.
It’s been five years since the rationing of importing western cars ended. Majority of the cars around are still manufactured by our eastern friends, the western cars are mainly practical, cheap and small.
The small amount imported from the United States goes mainly to companies for their representative purposes. Most of them are black four door sedans with pretty basic equipment, six and three on the tree is the norm.
Within the few exceptions among the Plymouth – Chrysler cars imported by Berner OY, in the addition to the only known four door Hemi Plymouth made , is also the storys top of the line, blue Plymouth VIP. Originally equipped with a 318 engine, column shift automatic, manual steering and power disc brakes. Only less than 8000 coupes were built and today it’s relatively rare, the car of the story is most likely the only one in this use!
Years pass, the youth of the car is pretty much unknown, but during that period for example Finnish Hot rod Association is established in 1972. Come the oil crises, and the value of US gas guzzlers collapse, suddenly they become available for the youth just starting their drivers career, and they become one sign of the rebel against Finlandizing of the official Finland.
Plymouth VIP is still an expensive car, but despite of that it soon becomes a hobby car. One day it shows up with a red flake paint and a painted “vinyl roof”, ever changing.The last version before the hiatus is presented in the Finnish USA car magazine, the V8 Magazine, in 1987.
At that point the car is dark blue, Nascar steelies, and wide tires all around. The original 318 engine has been hopped up with two turbochargers blowing through two side draft Dell’orto carbs adapted to a four barrel intake. Soon after that, a massive engine failure, and the car is pushed on the back burner and soon forgotten…
Part#2
…At the same time Jyrki Aukio who had always had US cars in his family, is starting his street race career, racing officially for the first time in 1988 with a 1973 Valiant four door 360 running a 14.57/99 mph.
In the property where Jyrki gets to work on his car, is also working a guy named Jussi Lahti. Jyrkis working at the car raises Jussis interest, and he also decides to start building a street racer.
The next decade is pretty much spent on building Darts and Valiants and they gain name both in official and unofficial street races with their A-body Mopars. However working day in and out for a decade with the same vehicles takes its toll, and a need arises doing something different.
During their trips they begin to speculate with the idea of building together a full size street car that would run mid 9’s like their pump gas engine, naturally aspirated A-bodies did at the time. The key, they agree, to achieve that and still retain street able would be turbocharging.
In 2004 Jyrki gets a call from Jussi; “Just bought a new car, a ’67 Plymouth VIP roller”. Jyrki thinks for a few minutes, takes another call and then returns to Jussi; “I bought turbos for it”.
They had no rush with the project, both still continued racing with their own vehicles until the VIP was moved in to the garage in the fall of 2005 and the fly cutter started to sing…
A lot of parts had already been gathered for the project, and the progress was rapid. The rear frame was replaced with Quarter Max parts, four link with coil overs. The car was built with an intention that it would full fill the FHRA Street D rules of the time, while still being able to be registered it and have it inspected as street legal.
The car was externally ready by 2006 FHRA American Car Show where it was introduced. However, the drivetrain was still in parts since the engine parts ordered hadn’t arrived.
http://kuvia.1g.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2006/ACS-2006/Acs-06-164.jpgAnd then the waiting begun…, the summer was already in the midpoint when a decision was made that for the 2006 season they would forget the turbochargers for now.
Instead, the engine was put together naturally aspirated with a carburetor. The rest of the season was raced with that combination, and surprisingly well it run; The heavy car with a low stall converter and too long gear ratio for the naturally aspirated engine run a best of 10.6 sec at 129mph.
Part #3
Even though the car run pretty well for its size naturally aspirated, we were left with mixed feelings. Compared to the earlier leaf spring cars that had to be steered through the quarter mile, the two speed four link car was boring to drive. The car run straight like a train and the only thing to do during the run was to wait the rpm gauge needle reach such figures that it was appropriate to push in the second gear.
Year 2007 started like the year before; waiting for the parts to arrive. The short stroke crank proved out to be the most challenging item. Finally after the season had already begun, the parts arrived. We rushed to get it together and the first race we attended was our annual European Championship race in July.
We arrived to the pits late, and the car had not run once. Saku Ritola from R-Motorsport helped us to get the car started with the EFI and when it did, we immediately drove it to tech, passed it, and straight to the line up for the last qualification round.
http://kuvia.1g.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2007/FHRA/NitroNationals5-8.7_07/Pit/5-8.7_07-081.jpgI instructed Jussi just to run through, and for a moment floor it to get some data to the ECU. Jussi did just that and the first run with the turbos was 12.6 seconds at 86 mph. At the pits we noticed that the data logging feature of the ECU hadn’t been turned on, still Jussi reported that for the brief period he pushed it, the car pulled pretty well.
We qualified last in the eliminator, and were to meet Olli Rämä in Jussis old Valiant, low 10 second car with its new drivetrain, in the first round, and get another chance.
Next morning in the eliminations the strategy was the same, just to get some data about the engine functions. The data logger was on, burnout went fine, staging and launch. Jussi didn’t rush, got worse reactions and was immediately left behind, then after a while floored it. Since everything seemed to work fine he stayed on it and almost caught Olli in the finish line running a better ET and loosing with a hole shot. However, everything worked and the tune up was safe according to the log, and the first 9 second Et was reality; 9.97/137 mph!
http://kuvia.1g.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2008/FHRA/DefaFinals29-31.8.2008/Defa29_31_08_7.jpgIn the next race we continued with the same tune up, running better than in our A-bodies, 9.37/148 mph, and in the next one 9.27/149.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqo3YcoO35QWith only our national finals left, we decided to install second springs in to the waste gates and see what happens with a bit more boost. I was in the line up running another car, so didn’t see how it went, thought I heard something but didn’t believe my ears.
However, it turned out to be true, the car responded well raising the boost and run 8.55/159 mph! As the race continued, the ET dropped in to 8.44/162 mph! The performance had more than met our hopes and even though we were glad about that, breaking the 8.50 second barrier caused some new challenges.
http://kuvia.1g.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2007/FHRA/DefaWinterFinals31.8-2.9/Race/31.8-2.9_07-605.jpgSo, we were at a point where we had to ditch the basically one year old roll cage and start prepping the car for SFI 25.5 spec that at the time was the quickest unibody spec, at least in Finland.
It was evident that the new cage had to be built out of cro mo since the car according to the SFI 25.5 spec must weigh under 3600 lbs. During the next winter we first stripped the car, then Jaffu Holms Island Race Cars welded the cage together, and we did the rest of the job. At the same time all the glass except the windshield was converted to Lexan, the doors were made out of fiberglass, and we met the SFI specs!
Next summer 2008 we continued from where we have left, won the first races with the car and made a national street car record of 8.13/170 mph, guess it's the only C-body ever done that!
http://kuvia.1g.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2008/FHRA/DefaFinals29-31.8.2008/Defa29_31_08_394.jpgTo be continued….
