Dodge: Back on track!

Motor, Mar 2001 by Nash, Tom

Dodge accomplishes the 'impossible' by designing and building an engine for NASCAR's ultra-competitive Winston Cup Series in only six months.

On June 9, 1985 at Pocono Raceway, John Good drove his Dodge to a lowly 30th place out of 40 qualifiers. Shortly thereafter, Dodge decided to pull out of NASCAR racing because of the costs involved, plus the fact that no Dodge had won a race in over seven years.

The decision was a bitter pill to swallow. After all, Dodge had dominated NASCAR racing throughout the '70s with such outstanding drivers as Bobby Isaac, Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, Dave Marcis, Neil Bonnet and, of course, Richard Petty. If Petty was the "king" of NASCAR, then surely Dodge wore the "crown." But after the glory days faded, Dodge abdicated the throne and slipped off into history.

Now, after an absence of more than 15 years, Dodge has decided to jump back into the fray. Faced with the daunting task of designing and creating a racing program from the ground up, the company first needed to find a leader to help design and develop the vehicle that would be put on the track. It would have to be competitive or the program would be doomed to failure. And, it would have to be done in record time.

Fortunately, the first man that Dodge approached to manage the program was Ray Evernham, former crew chief for the Jeff Gordon/Hendricks Racing Team that dominated the Winston Cup Series in the '90s. Evernham's proven ability in every aspect of Winston Cup racing made him the logical choice. As a result, he was named as the first of several team owners, and would be an integral part of the development program from start to finish line.

Evernham and his racing experts would sit down with Dodge's engineering staff and coordinate with NASCAR's regulators to work out every detail along the way. Instead of being handed a vehicle to race and specifications to meet, they were actually working together with the sponsoring factory and the governing association to create a new-fromthe-ground-up racing machine.

This "one-team" approach extended to the other Dodge racing teams of Bill Davis Racing and Petty Enterprises. As soon as Melting Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing came aboard, they, too, became part of the one-team dynamics.

Dodge, as part of DaimlerChrysler, began to look at every possible resource at its disposal to accomplish the job at hand. Every company that performed outside work for DC would be considered for how it could contribute. Each department within the corporation would be utilized to its fullest-from advanced design to prototyping to testing. The outside companies and internal departments that help DaimlerChrysler create passenger cars and trucks would be tapped for their expertise to help create the Winston Cup cars.

The Engine Guys

Two of the resources Dodge thrust into the program immediately were Ted Flack and Roger Doll. Flack, DaimlerChrysler's manager of NASCAR Engine Programs, treated us to a tour of the six-man race engine shop deep within the Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Part of Chrysler's NASCAR program in the '70s, Flack explained the development of the Winston Cup engine that will be used in the new Dodge Intrepid R/T.

Roger Doll has been in race engine development for 25 years. He says his main job is "making sure the race teams don't run out of parts." He's even delivered engine blocks from Michigan to race team shops in North Carolina in the back of his pickup truck when they were needed in a hurry. He also will stay in touch with the teams to see what engine changes or alterations they suggest.

Starting From Scratch

Since NASCAR rules require that the manufacturer supply an approved engine block, cylinder heads and intake manifold, the Dodge team began the daunting task of designing and building these components on Oct. 14, 1999. It sounds like a lot of time-493 days until the Daytona 500 race on Feb. 18, 2001-but the amount of designing, casting, testing, altering and tweaking required is so long and complex, it seemed impossible to achieve.

NASCAR also requires that the engine be based on a standard (stock) production engine displacing a maximum of 358 cubic inches and having the same bore centers, deck height, intake manifold height and camshaft centerline location. It must be made of cast iron and be fed by a carburetor. Aluminum heads are mandated, although "hemi" heads are no longer allowed.

Dodge decided to base the Winston Cup engine on its durable 5.9-liter truck engine. The company additionally supplies valve covers, head gaskets, water manifolds, water pumps and fuel pumps to its race teams. It's up to the individual teams to use whatever parts they prefer to complete the engine. Usually, these parts come from sponsorship agreements.

During the initial meetings with Evernham's racing pros, Flack and his crew brought advanced engineering specialists to discuss and designon the spot-exactly what the race teams needed.

This is where applying all the resources of a large car company pays off. DaimlerChysler's corps of design engineers specialize in computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM), high-tech modeling and "rapid prototype modeling" systems, which actually build a solid model of each part designed by the computers. These systems create the parts out of multiple layers of paper or blocks of plastic. After the part has been created by a computer program called Digital Model Assembly (DMA), the data is transmitted to the rapid prototype system, which uses a laser to sculpt the part to exact dimensions. This computerization cuts the design and development time to a fraction of what was needed in prior years.