Chris Pace
Columbia, Tenn.
Imagine the looks you'll get as you pull away from unsuspecting Mustangs and Camaros in one of these. It's priceless. Chris Pace has just the sleeper to do it too.
It's an '86 Dodge Shelby Charger with a 175-hp TurboII intercooled engine from an '88 Shelby Z Daytona. So what? In its current form, it runs 12.80 at 110 mph at 20 psi of boost. How the hell does he do it?
Easy, start with the aforementioned TurboII intercooled engine and convert it to a 2.5-liter set-up with a '90 "common block" bottom end. Stuff the block with Mahle pistons and use ARP hardware to hold it all together.
Then have your rotating assembly balanced and add a Forward Motion Enforcer1 cylinder head and ported intake and exhaust manifolds. Now add an '89 roller cam and 52mm throttle body. Finally, take a Garrett T3 Super 60 trim turbo and HKS blow off valve, then you're a player. A custom, mandrel bent exhaust helps usher the fumes out the back and aid turbo spool up.
Pace's Shelby also plays house with an MSD 6A ignition with Blaster coil, Taylor 8.5mm plug wires, an '86 GLHS Stage II logic module and custom intercooler constructed from two T-Bird cores. S60 injectors provide 40 percent more fuel along with a Cartech rising rate and James Richardson adjustable fuel pressure regulators.
The tranny is an A555 unit with Centerforce dual friction clutch and a modified '89 shifter for short throws. Energy Suspension urethane bushings and KYB GR2 shocks with MP road race springs keep the wheels planted when Pace is ready to whoop on some V8s.
To keep his car from winning out of pity, Pace completely stripped and gutted the car to make way for a new paint job and upholstery. Pace admits to doing most of the work, but his greatest resource is the Shelby Dodge mailing list at www.sdml.org.
Beefed up and looking good, this Shelby's hungry for some V8 ass.