A Plan B That’s Cool and Quick Enough to Qualify for Plan A
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. And if you need to take it up a notch, comedian Ron White once said: “and try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.”
When things didn’t work out for David Barker’s plan A ride for Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes, he figure out an alternative, and will likely have a fun time with it!
David wanted to take his classic black Dodge Charger, but knew late last year that the outlook was bleak when a camshaft order stretched much longer than expected. “It’s almost a year to date from when I ordered it,” said David.
The camshaft finally arrived in March, but the corresponding dominos didn’t fall. “I had to get back into the machine shop’s schedule,” David admitted. “But the latest was they ordered the wrong top ring. They are working on that now, and getting another custom set made. Then dyno to see what I need to change with the converter.”
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The amount of stuff to accomplish on the Charger made David take a hard look at other options, and he arrived at a car not seen at too many drag-and-drive events, a Volkswagen Golf.
“Back in 2004 is when we purchased our first VW,” said David of their Golf TDI. “Then a few years ago, we had a TDI Passat they bought back for ‘Dieselgate’, and we ordered the 2017 Golf R, and I’ve been tweaking it ever since.
I don’t really have any goals with it. This is our first drag-and-drive, and we only have so much time off. But I did get the bug when I was at Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, joining Sick Ward.”
The 2017 Golf R has some hop-ups done to the 2-liter engine, based on Integrated Engineering stage 3 mods. The ECM and TCM have been tuned up, the stock turbo has been replaced with a Garrett GT2260S version, a bigger intercooler installed, and the factory cat back exhaust got a high flow catalytic converter just ahead in the exhaust stream.
The modifications paid off with an 11.42 at 119 mph run during David’s first trip to his local track a few weeks ago.
“I’ve been a fan of drag-and-drives for a while,” David said. “Looks like good times, and I get to race the car at other tracks I probably wouldn’t have gone to.
The biggest challenge for us is to finish and make it home safe. I don’t really race my cars. I make them faster and run them like stole them. Just have fun with them!”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of David Barker.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com