It was a good weekend running in Georgia, the SpeedFactory Charger R&D race car with driver Eddie Rosa achieved a time of 9.45 seconds at 145 mph in the quarter mile:

Let’s recap. The crew at SpeedFactory Cars is here to build fast cars for daily street use. Out of that necessity the Orange Charger Research and Development car was born, aptly called Pumpkin-stein. It started life as a 5.7 Hemi Police Charger; Mark, Eddie and Mike had the bright idea stuff in a 426 Hemi and then teamed up with Vortech Superchargers (and other partners) to build/test new parts and develop packages for street use.

The car has been campaigned by SpeedFactory since June 2008. The car was a full interior stock drivetrain drag/street car running 10.29’s with a roll cage. As we all know the New Hemi community is growing and evolving everyday, and thanks to the bar set by Chris (Hemi~C) we had to change the game a little.

We didn’t want to add another power adder, and stuck with the Vortech YSi Centrifigual Supercharger with the same 14lb boost levels and 426 engine setup. We called a few of our partners, put our heads down and set forth to step into the 9’s. Not wanting to add any more power, we did what would come next – put the “Whale” on a diet. Previous fighting weight for the Charger was 4224lbs (with driver Eddie Rosa).

We started with the interior, losing all the usual suspects-seats, carpet, and headliner. Then we took it to the extreme. We scraped out all of the interior sound deadener and seam sealer, leaving the driver’s seat, cage and the original glass all around.

After all of the hard work, we went with a full cage and certification, which brings us to today, Dec. 12, 2009:

This weight is with driver Eddie Rosa included.

Mark and Eddie pulled up to the track (South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valgosta, GA) at about 10:45am. After tech they finished up some lose ends in the car and finally got to the lanes for the first run at about 11:30am. Everything goes fine during the burnout and staging the car.  Since everything is fresh Eddie decided to take it easy, leaving off idle and just running it. As soon as the light turned green Eddie laid into it and the car made it to the 60 foot mark and hit the tranny limiter. D’OH!

Next run was an hour later 12:30pm.  Knowing they had to get at least one full run in, Eddie was going to short shift second to get it past 1st gear and possibly blow through the limiter again. This burnout was longer than the first and the track prep was first-rate. Eddie pulled up to the lights and left off idle again, this time short shifting to 2nd at 5000 rpm, got past that point and then let it shift at 6700. Little did Eddie and Mark know this easy pass was a 9.64s at 144 mph with a 1.44s 60 foot time. Good enough, but of course there is more there.

Third and last pass. Same as the second, only to have track prep much stickier than before. It was like CRAZY GLUE! Second car out after prep was done in the right lane. This time the car hit the tranny limiter during the burnout, Eddie restarted her and redid the burnout. Lights come down and this is the result:

Needless to say Eddie didn’t leave the line. The car still has plenty left in it, and we will continue testing in the coming months – with stronger parts! The Charger may be have been on a quick weight loss plan, but it still has the stock drivetrain and electronics. We are using the stock engine location, engine mounts, sub frames front and rear, even the stock rear end. The OEM electronics are all still intact and we are using Diablo Sport Predator to flash the PCM. All in the effort to apply what we learn on the track – to lay down on the street!

Here’s a video of the final result:

The SpeedFactory 426 Charger came in runner-up to Hemi~C’s Magnum.

Check out this post for much more detailed information and some videos.

SpeedFactory 426 Charger launching HARD.

Mark and Eddie with the SpeedFactory 426 Charger.

Chase Miller with the Landmark Dodge/SpeedFactory ARCA Dodge Charger race car

Look for Chase Miller’s “Landmark Dodge/SpeedFactory” Dodge Charger at the upcoming ARCA race in Michigan on Friday. Good luck to Chase from all of us at SpeedFactory!

The Chase Miller Landmark Dodge/SpeedFactory Charger also raced at Pocono Raceway on June 6. “I am especially pleased to have Landmark Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and the SpeedFactory as our partners at Pocono. They are professional and great to work with.”