Hi all! I haven't been on for a while and well...it was because I was ashamed that I didn't have a Dodge! Well now I am back in the saddle so to speak and need some input for some people that have done some performance mods to their R/T's. So we can get all the stupid out of the way early, this is not my first rodeo. That was an '01 Dakota R/T that after I was finished with and sold produced somewhere in the area of 460HP and 500TQ at the crank. Then I moved into K cars with an '89 Omni non-turbo and swaped out the motor for something a little more peppy. Then for a while I was possessed by Satan and had a '97 Saleen S281 Cobra. Now I've been excersized and have an '06 Charger R/T in the darker of the two blue colours that were offered that year.

So lets skip all the usual stuff, i.e. CAI, exhaust, programmer/new ECM/TCM, etc...I want to create a ton of power, as well as be able to point this thing in the direction I want to go and it go there. I have a current copy of the Mopar catalog, however in the experience I got during the build up on my Dak, this isn't always the cheapest route and definitely doesn't always garner the results you would expect for the price.

Suspension wise I am thinking along the lines of a coil-over set-up of some sort and upgrading the front and rear sway-bars and adding some upper support through a strut tower brace for the front and some kind of brace for the rear. What I need is suggestions on kits and individual components for this. As priced at my local CJD dealership these parts would run me quite a bit over the $3500 mark, and that is very hard to swallow.

Engine wise...bolt-ons for these cars would be the usual like I said, a CAI of some sort as well as an exhaust and programmer or fully programmable ECM/TCM units. Up graded torque converter, and that type of stuff. But what about creating some serious power?? Are there supercharger options out there for these?? What about head swaps? Intake manifolds? Cams? The 3rd Gen HEMI is kinda like alien technology to me right now!

Any suggestions, guys?? Let me have 'em!!

 

First off welcome to the forum and congrats on getting a RT.

Sounds like you know what you want. There are supercharger options but I'm not sure your ready to toss a cool 10K+ into that. As you know spraing + tuning is the easiest way to get those numbers up there.

I'll give the forum vendors and oppertunity to jump on this.

baldyloxs is stroking his 06 Daytona, I'm waiting to see the outcome of that. Follow this starter thread on his project https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-c...cant-wait.html

 

Thanks for the welcome back! I have noticed through my lurking here and on other sites that there seems to be a difference between the R/T and the Daytona, could some explain what the difference between the two? Is it similar to the Mach 1 Mustang and the normal GT??

 

Once you put the basics (CAI, exhaust and tune) on the RT you have surpassed the Daytona as far as performance.

 

OK, so here is an update on the progress I am making with the R/T...Bought the K&N FIPK Gen2 kit yesterday at my local speed shop and also did the exhaust while I was there, also ordered the MOPAR programmable ECM/TCM unit and the performance torque converter from Bob Howard C J, and D in Oklahoma City, OK. I already notice a huge difference in the low end from just the FIPK and the exhaust. When the ECM/TCM unit and torque converter come in I will have them installed and dyno tune the computer and see where I am at. As for the suspension...oh that loverly suspension, how I hate you so, stock suspension...I have been looking at the MOPAR kit, at the price of an arm, leg and left ********, and also the Eibach kit that Tirerack.com sells. The dilemma comes in where I cannot find ANYONE who has done this type of rebuild on one of these cars before, so what I am reaching out to you, dear Dodgeforum.com readers is this; I am trying to build a streetable road race car for not a whole lotta bucks. My intentions with this is to be able to autocross this car with the SCCA Friday thru Sunday, and turn around and drive this car as a fun commuter car the whole 6 miles to work every other day of the week. I am not looking at winning national titles with this car, I mean come on! It is a four door family car tat is classified with cars like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and the likes. So if anyone knows anything about either of these coil-over kits please, PLEASE let me know what your experience, or even what the "hear-say" on them is!!

 

All of us would like to get out cheap but you know the saying, "to play you pay".

The Mopar coilover kit is basically a KW variant I. Can't speak to the Eibach kits but I'm sure their good. The inistall will take half a day, routhly 4 hrs, depending on how quick you can change the springs on the struts. Save yourself a little time and put on some aftermarket sway bars while you do the suspension.

I love the Charger but I'm not sure how well it's 4000+ lbs will lend itself to Autocross.

If your serious about Autocross you better look at the KW variant IIs (prepare for the next level of sticker shock), they give you the ability to control damper.

 

Like I said before this is not the first car I have built and probably will not be the last. As for sway bars I already have them picked out and just waiting on some funds to clear up before I buy them. The KW's, do you have a company link or shop link for them? I would like to check these out. I am looking for a set up that has both bound and rebound adjustment in them. As for the 4000+ pound race car, it is not the first one. The R/T Dakota I built weighed in at 4269lbs after it was all said and done with. And I still cannot get over the looks on the F-body and Mustang guys faces when that got their asses whooped in a truck! So while the R/T Charger is not the lightest car I've built it is not the heaviest either.

 

KW is a German company, here is a link to their US site variant 2s http://www.kw-suspension.com/us/kw_variant_2.php

I didn't know the Dakota R/T was that heavy, was that a standard cab? I have often entertained the thought of getting a Dakota with a 5.9 to build up, their nice trucks.

 

It was the extended cab. The standard cab is only 200lbs lighter so I figured I would get the extended cab so that I had a place to stuff my helmet, gloves, and tools besides the bed which was full of 335/35/17 tires! That was the best part about that truck was that I could run 335mm race tires on ALL FOUR CORNERS!! And the wheels were cheap too because the bolt pattern for the early model Viper and the Dakotas were the same, so just find some knock off Viper wheels and have a wheel wide enough to fit the monster tires.

 

OK so I am at an impasse with tire selection. I have been unable to find a reliable source for how wide of a tire I can fit on the stocker 18" rims. How wide of a tire I can go period and can I move down to a 17" rim in order to have wider selection of tires in general. does anyone have any input on this??