How I came across Orange Julius (OJ)
As a risk taker, I've always had an interest in driving fast. From the 1993 BMW 3 Series Coupe I dreamed of owning as a child to the now built 6.6L Dodge Challenger SRT8. When I purchased my first sports car, I thought I was the first black woman NASCAR driver! It was a 2007 Ford Mustang. A v6 with the transmission only built for a safe driver. It wasn't long after I bought it in 2016 that I was already looking for something faster. In 2018, I was searching for a manual GT Mustang. I found a car dealership that was selling one within my budget, and there I saw this orange pumpkin colored Dodge Challenger parked right next to the mustang. It instantly caught my eye. It was in magnificent shape. The paint, flawless, and it sounded so good! When I saw it was a 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8, I was disinterested.
I didn't want a vehicle that was almost 10 years old. Plus, looking at the common issues of the car during that year, I knew that the differential would need to be replaced. Nevertheless, I LOVED the way it felt. Test driving it turned me into a believer. Not knowing much about Dodge vehicles or Hemi engines, let alone Street Racing Technology (SRT), I took the risk of buying what has now turned into my competitive race car.
Why race?
Soon after I purchased OJ, I joined a local car club. Unfamiliar with the car scene, it gave me insight on what my car was capable of. How to do burnouts, street racing, understanding horsepower (hp), maintenance, forced induction, nitrous, car meets, dragstrips, street tires vs drag radials, etc. was learned from that car club. Even though street racing is fun, it's completely dangerous and too risky with the careers I have. When the car club made it's first appearance at Mooresville Dragway in Mooresville, NC, I felt the excitement of the trash talking and difference in car performance on a prepped track.
It was exhilarating. I decided to look into how I could get my car to be faster than stock. If you recall, at that time, in 2018-2019, Dodge released 3-4 SRT Hellcats. Thus, my 425hp SRT8 was behind the curve in technology and power. However, it turned out to be the best car to modify to produce more power.
The idea
In the building phase, I initially wanted to install twin turbos. So I contacted a well known shop within the Hemi world - Mass Acceleration in Denver, NC. However, the engine rebuild with other modifications would have to be done in order for the twin turbos to produce the forced induction safely and efficiently. This would put me at a minimum $25k and I didn't have that kind of money to spend at the time. G, the manager at Mass Acceleration, told me the next best option and what he has installed on his own challenger, is a ProCharger. ProCharger is its own brand that delivers airflow to the engine. It is a supercharger that it creates centrifugal force air induction through a propeller to produce more power to the engine by running off of the belt but looks like a turbo. With the ProCharger, of course, I would have to rebuild the engine to be able to take in a significant amount of power (at a steady rate), rebuild the transmission, strengthen the drivetrain in order to deliver the power to the rear wheels (OJ is a rear wheel sports car), and install a bigger, dual fuel pump that would have to operate off of e85 fuel.
With everything installed, the total price put me at about $50k. I did not pay this outright, afterall, I didn't have $25k to install twin turbos so I definitely didn't have $50k to do a complete rebuild of OJ. What I decided to do was install a ProCharger (D1X) which ran me about $13k with little modifications involved. This was in conjunction with the bigger fuel pump. It took me a little over a year to save money to do the complete rebuild. Also, what initially started out as a horsepower (hp) chase, turned into a time chase. I no longer wanted an 1100 hp car if it only took 800 hp to run a 10 second 1/4th mile dragstrip. Thus, between the calculations I did and the advice from G, we started with what I could afford. You can absolutely just install a ProCharger and not have to do a complete rebuild but the amount of power you can induce is significantly less if you want your car to last. It adds at least 160 hp. But, to reach my goal, a rebuild had to be done which is why it took me a while to be able to afford it. I speak more about my build and numbers on my YouTube channel.
What's left to be installed in OJ
Because OJ is not quite at 10 seconds or faster, a bigger dual pump, bigger fuel injectors, and a smaller pulley is needed to add more power. I'm also looking into a dual radiator to keep the engine cooler in between races. Last, but not least, the ProCharger reverse race kit (F-1D or better) is going to be next to look at installing.
