Archive for the 'Mopar' Category
November 3rd, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
Mopar announced it will launch a new Pro Stock Dodge Avenger today. It will compete in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Those attending the 2009 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show will among the first to check out the new drag racing car. The new Avenger will be shown at Booth # 43127.
The Mopar Dodge Avenger replaces the previous Dodge Stratus R/T body, which has been in use since the middle of the 2003 racing season.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) has already approved the new Avenger for competition. The car is scheduled to make its competition debut at the 50th Annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California, Feb. 11-14, 2010.
The new Pro Stock Mopar Dodge Avenger was developed in-house at Chrysler Group LLC. The project utilized Chrysler Group LLC tools and resources also employed to build the production Dodge Avenger, creating a connection between the street and the quarter-mile.
“The introduction of the new NHRA Pro Stock Dodge Avenger will invigorate our Mopar-powered Pro Stock racers,” said Jim Sassorossi, Director-Mopar Global Parts Sales and Marketing, Chrysler Group LLC. “The production Dodge Avenger is a perfect template for the drag strip. The Dodge Avenger’s bold styling and aggressive looks communicate the performance capability of the Dodge brand’s mid-size sedan.”
The greatest challenge to the Dodge Motorsports Engineering team tasked with the project was maintaining maximum identity of the Dodge Avenger in the new body without forsaking performance on the drag strip.
“Our team worked within NHRA’s rules to balance aerodynamic performance goals and maximize Dodge Avenger identity,” said Joe Vitous, SRT & Motorsports Aero-Thermal Manager. “The new Mopar Dodge Avenger meets or exceeds the aero goals we established.”
Mopar-powered NHRA Pro Stock drivers, including Team Mopar driver Allen Johnson, worked closely with the Dodge Motorsports Engineering team to ensure the new Pro Stock Dodge Avenger was large enough to accommodate all safety features, such as the roll cage and quick ingress and egress in case of an emergency. The size of the front door of the Avenger was adjusted to maximize driver safety.
“I’m very excited to race the new Mopar Dodge Avenger,” Johnson commented. “We’ve been racing the Stratus since mid-2003. Just having a change is an upgrade. We feel we’ve been at a disadvantage with some of our competitors who have been racing in newer bodies for the last few years. I was fitted for the new body in late September. NHRA was there, and we spent a lot of time going over the templates. That was exciting. I’m glad we’re going ahead full bore.”
November 2nd, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
Mopar/J&J Racing NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson saw his race day cut short at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals as he lost to Jeg Coughlin in the first round. However, Mopar ruled the day; The final run was all-Mopar HEMI-powered as Larry Morgan emerged victorious, beating Rickie Jones.
Johnson posted his Mopar-fueled Dodge Stratus R/T at No. 6 after two days of qualifying, drawing No. 11 seed Coughlin as his first-round foe. The Greeneville, Tennessee, native recorded the quicker trip down the strip with a 6.706-second/205.76 mph pass to Coughlin’s 6.715/205.54 mark but Coughlin was faster off the start with a reaction time of .007. Johnson’s .053 time was just too much tomake up in the run.
“We did make a decent run that round,” remarked Johnson. “I don’t think we had enough to overcome the magical light he [Coughlin] had. We made a little headway there with the car. The motor ran well.
“We’re just going to throw everything at it at Pomona, and I’m going to go home and work on that practice tree a little more to get quicker on my starts.”
Morgan drove to his tenth career win with a winning pass of 6.720/205.69 to Jones’ 6.794/203.16 run. It was Morgan’s first win since the 2002 Sonoma event. The 22-year-old Jones was making his first appearance in the finals.
Along with Allen Johnson’s earlier victories at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals in Denver and the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka, Morgan’s triumph was the third win for a Mopar-powered Pro Stocker this season.
Johnson is now seventh in the NHRA Countdown to 1 standings. Next up for the Mopar-powered Pro Stock contingent is the final race of the season, the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Nov. 12-15, at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.
October 30th, 2009 by DaveAdmin
Mopar has clarified its eStore announcement in a mailing to dealers. Parts ordered online by end users will be sent to local dealers for fulfillment, using existing dealer-to-dealer systems, as speculated earlier. Payment will be made using existing invoicing systems. Dealer participation in the “D2D Customer” program is optional.
At the dealer, once an order is routed from the eStore, a parts person will accept the order and ship it out; Mopar handles the customer interface and payment system.
October 29th, 2009 by DaveAdmin
Beginning next month, consumers may log on to the Mopar eStore at www.mopar.com and purchase any of the more than 100,000 parts and accessories available for a variety of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Plymouth vehicles. Mopar will ship parts anywhere in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii.
Saw the blurb regarding MOPAR direct shipping parts to the customer,
we hadn’t heard about it so we did some digging. Looks like it will be
similar to MOPAR’S Dealer 2 Dealer referral system. D2D, as we call it
is used by MOPAR to; One fill orders of Back Ordered parts by purchasing
them from Dealers that have signed up a paid for the D2D service. It is
also a good way to utilize obsolete inventory that otherwise might have
been thrown away and written off. From what we found out so far is;
Customer looks up and orders part from MOPAR website, MOPAR in turn
finds a dealer with stock of that given part number. The Dealer then
sells the part to MOPAR and ships it to the customer, MOPAR also pays
for freight too. With the D2D program MOPAR reimburses the dealer for
the cost of the part, if the part number is obsolete or discontinued, if
the part is on Back Order, I.E. MOPAR is out of stock they will
reimburse the supplying dealership 110%, or cost + 10% which is
generally what Dealers in a given geographic area will sell to one another.
One of our readers wrote: “It looks similar to MOPAR’S Dealer 2 Dealer referral system. D2D, as we call it is used by MOPAR to fill orders of backordered parts by purchasing them from dealers that have paid for the D2D service. It is also a good way to utilize obsolete inventory that otherwise might have been thrown away and written off.
“The system will work like this: The customer looks up and orders part from MOPAR website, MOPAR in turn finds a dealer with stock of that given part number. The dealer then sells the part to MOPAR and ships it to the customer, MOPAR pays for freight too. With the D2D program MOPAR reimburses the dealer for the cost of the part, if the part number is obsolete or discontinued, if the part is on backorder, (MOPAR is out of stock) they will reimburse the supplying dealership 110%, or cost + 10% which is generally what dealers in a given geographic area will sell to one another.”
October 29th, 2009 by DaveAdmin
Starting in late December, Chrysler, Jeep®, Dodge Car and Ram Truck customers may watch more TV programs, with channels for both kids and adults, with a dealer-installed mobile TV option from Mopar®.
Chrysler Group LLC is the first automaker in the United States to offer live mobile TV to consumers with the capacity for as many as 20 channels throughFLO TV™ Auto Entertainment. Mopar’s suggested retail price is $629, plus installation. A one-year pre-paid FLO TV service subscription is included with installation.
The package will be available as a dealer-installed option on these 2008-2010 model year vehicles with factory DVD entertainment systems: Chrysler Town & Country, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Commander, Dodge Grand Caravan, Dodge Journey, Dodge Nitro, Ram 1500 and Ram 2500/3500. The service also can be added to select 2008-2010 model-year vehicles when new Mopar headrest or seat-top DVD entertainment systems are purchased.
Television signals are delivered through a dedicated multicast network. FLO TV offers live and time-shifted programming from top entertainment brands, including CBS Mobile, CNBC, Comedy Central, FOX News, MSNBC, MTV, NBC 2Go and Nickelodeon.
Up to 20 channels will be available in late December when the feature is available for dealer installation. By the end of 2009, the FLO TV service should be available in more than 100 major markets and many interstate driving corridors.
A small antenna, similar in size to a laptop mouse, is mounted on a vehicle’s roof to deliver the digital TV signal. Inside the vehicle, the receiver and wiring are installed under the interior trim of the vehicle and are not visible to occupants. User-friendly wired and wireless remote controls allow viewers to easily surf channels.
Mopar’s FLO TV™ Auto Entertainment option includes a 3-year/36,000-mile warranty on new vehicles or a 12-month/12,000-mile warranty on used vehicles for hardware and installation.
October 25th, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
Jim Daniels, a dentist from Bristol, Pennsylvania, set a new NRHA class record and clinched the Dutch Classic event at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.
In his 1968 Dodge Dart, Daniels beat David Barton of Robesonia, Pennsylvania with a run of 8.284 seconds at 159.53 mph. Ironically, Daniels could have walked the quarter-mile and still been victorious because Barton fouled at the start. Despite that, Daniels was still pleased with his performance, saying, “It was a ‘no-lose’ final, but it is awesome to have won the race and set the record. It was a total team effort all season long and it feels great.”
This is the third time Daniels has claimed a Mopar HEMI Challenge event, His first victory came at the 2008 Dutch Classic.
Daniels also set the NHRA Super Stock/A HEMI class record run in qualifying Thursday, with a pass of 8.331 seconds at 157.96 mph. He was quicker on Sunday, but NHRA rule only allow class records to be set before the first round of eliminations.
The Dutch Classic is the largest all-sportsman event on the east coast. This year there were 467 entries in all classes. The Dutch Classic was the final event in the 2009 Mopar HEMI Challenge Race Series.
October 25th, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
Dick Towers, drag racing historian and proprietor of Match-Race-Madness.com, passed away on Friday, October 23, 2009.
Called the grandfather of Drag Racing Preservation, Towers amassed an impressive collection of photographs and documents that have become a visual record of the sport. His website, www.match-race-madness.com, includes a huge library of historic Super Stock, F/X and Pro Stock images by photographers like Marty Johnson, Jim Kelly and Mike Brescia. In 2007, Towers told Hemmings Motor News that he estimated he had nearly 300,000 images.
In the early 1990s, Towers and Mike Guffey organized what was called the first “real” reunion of HEMI-powered dragsters.
Born in Michigan, Towers was posted to Vandenberg AFB in California and remained in the Goldern State after his separation from the service. After seeing his first drag race in 1960, Towers was hooked and competed in both SS/D and SS/LA classes.
