Introducing: Project "Why would you do that?"
Here it is in July 2006:
The car is sort of a new joint venture between friends. It mostly belongs to a good friend of mine who no longer had space for it and wanted to give it to me to fill the void left by my old Omni. For those that don't know, the Charger is just an Omni with two doors.
It is a neat enough car, but my friends had a bunch of left over new parts from an abandoned Super60 project from a Shelby Charger, and I had piles of good stuff left from my Omni, so we decided that with a healthy dose of cash, we'd take this from a 145k mile carbureted 96hp car to a 2.5L Super60 with a target around the 300hp mark with tons of torque to spare.
I very much want this car to not just be a straight-line special, but also perform around a track, which means it is being assembled with appropriate precautions such as oil pan baffles and big brakes.
Onto the beginning of the project:
I didn't take pictures, but the first thing we did was remove the old drivetrain and seam weld/reinforce a few known weak points in the engine bay.
The second task was totally invisible, but huge... we bought an entire 1989 Shelby Daytona that was operational, but ready for retirement and stripped it of all the goodies we needed. To the Daytona purists, don't worry... this horse was beyond recovery.
The third task was to replace the stock fuel tank with a fuel-injected tank and a Walbro 255lph pump.
Onto the pictures:
Welded/reinforced/cleaned/painted engine bay:
Steve assembling the crossmember with the fresh 14:1 ratio steering rack and the relocated dogbone mount to accomodate the A568 transaxle.
The crossmember bolted back up in the car:
Modified SRT-4 knuckle with SRT-4 hub and spindle... attached with modified Neon outer tie-rods.
Used SRT-4 brake parts test fit to car:
Installing the four-wheel disc compatible proportioning valve.
Installing the 24mm master cylinder from the 89 Daytona. (Coincidentally the same size as an SRT-4, so the pedal travel should be great.)
Beginning the dressup of the rebuilt 2.5L common block. It has forged Venolia pistons and ARP hardware throughout. Assembling the engine is the next project.
The typical state of the Omni/Blues household garage: The Mustang SVO Duratec project engine is on the left, Charger on the right.
Parked in the garage after a good weekend worth of work. Finally sitting on the wheels for the first time in months. The new 15x7 35mm Rota Slipstreams hopefully fit the car well.
