Date: May 11, 2007
Time: 6:25pm
Temperature: 88F
The Track: Capitol Raceway, Crofton, MD

The Contenders:
2006 Dodge Dakota Club Cab, 4.7 High Output V8, Automatic,AWD, 1200 miles
2007 Toyota Sienna XLE AWD, 3.5 V6, Automatic,4400 miles

Best Times:
Dakota (Tow/Haul disengaged) : 16.936@81.30mph
Dakota (Tow/Haul engaged): 16.693@81.27mph
Sienna: 16.350@84.85

Minivan beats HO V8 Dakota by .343 seconds and 3.58 mph. This is pretty much how I predicate it would go. The Sienna has the same hp as the Dakota, but wieghs a couple hundred pounds less.

Just for reference purposes, here are some track times for other cars I've owned and taken to the track:
2003 Ford E350 15 passenger diesel van: 18.3@75mph
2001 Buick Regal GS - bolt on mods: 13.4@105mph
1999 Camaro Z28 6 speed, stock: 13.7@107mph
2000 Ford F150 Lightning (chip, filter): 13.1@106mph, stock 14.00@100mph
1992 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo AWD, BPU: 13.4@103mph

 

That just makes me sad... [&:]

 

It makes me want to start modding my Dakota.

The minivan is my brother's. He and is wife were visitiing from out of town and I convinced him to run his van at the Friday night test & tune just to see what it would run. I was actually surprised it was as close as it was - his minivan feels substantially quicker than my Dakota. His other car is a Corvette Z06, but I haven't been able to convince him to take it to the track yet. He has never been on a track before, but both the minivan and Dak require no skill to pull very consistent times, thanks to AWD.

 

No mods yet. I suspect that overly aggressive torque management parameters in the PCM are to blame for the Dak's poor performance. I may try a chip or reprogrammed PCMand seehow muchdifference it makes.

 

Wouldn't the AWD hurt the Dakota's chances? Isn't AWD gonna rob it of power quite a bit? I'm guessing if you took a Dak with part time four wheel drive and turned the front wheels off or had a 4x2, the results would be different...especially if you modded it some...i.e. exhaust, intake, programmer. I can't waitfor the new 4.7 in the 2008 Dakota.

 

normal 4.7 runs 16.9 17.0 in the 1/4. your ho should do better than that even if it is awd. i have you beat by 2.5 seconds in the 1/4 and i only have a cam kit with bolt on mods. it might have been better if you went through the gears instead of leaving it in drive and messing with the tow haul switch.

 

Ok lets see the mini van pull my 2 jetskis thru the hill country in Texas, enough said. I had a 3.5L Satrurn VUE that was killer fast, but couldent pull crap. Different vehicles different uses.

 

As a general rule of the thumb, 10 hp is worth about .1 second in the quarter mile. The non-HO 4.7 has 30hp less than the HO, so one would expect the H.O to run about .3 seconds quicker. 17.0-.3 = 16.7. I ran a 16.69. That's damn close. That 30hp isn't going to make this a 15 second truck. It's still only 260hp pushing a 4700lb brick.

I'll have to try manually shifting next time and see what happens. I was pleasantly surprised to see that tow/haul knocked almost 1/4 second off.

Did yourun the 14.19 with no power adders (forced induction or nitrous)? That's pretty encouraging. It tells me that there's a lot of potential in the 4.7. Did you run at an actual truck or did you use a performance timer? What were the atmospheric conditions when you ran.?It was pretty hot for my runs. On other cars, I've seen up to .5 second difference in cooler air and with better barometric pressure, so there's still hope. Unfortunately, no matter how you slice it, the Dak is still slower than the minivan (remember, the van was also AWD).