I mentioned my "race van" in another thread, and people expressed some interest, so I thought I would write up a quick build log. But first, here is the completed project:
If you just want to scroll through the photos and laugh, go right ahead, I don't mind. If you're curious, feel free to read my long rambling story below!
The backstory: I live in Idaho's Treasure Valley, and Meridian Speedway (a local 1/4 mile paved oval racetrack) puts on an event called The Eve of Destruction every year. It has some normal racing, but as the night goes on the events get crazier! One of the highlights is what they call the "boat race". Basically, you get a clunker car, and hook a boat (no trailer, just the boat) behind and try to be the last man standing with what resembles most of a boat.
For obvious reasons, to run this race, you still need to meet full safety regs, which means a cage, race seat, harness, window net, fire suit, and so on. Many people just use an old race car that isn't competitive or reliable anymore and use that, but since I don't regularly race, I didn't have an old race car. So I built one!
I picked up a 1990-something Dodge Caravan with 220k miles on it for $125 from a friend of a friend. The transmission was (still is) going out, and it was becoming unreliable, so they got something better and just needed this gone. It was about how you expect for the price: poorly repaired accident damage to the front left, speedometer only works if you give it a Fonzie-love-tap in the right spot, no A/C, no ABS (didn't even have it stock!!!), and so on. It was so completely unremarkable I totally forgot to take photos before I started modifying it :spit: So I begin the mods!
First step was remove all glass except the front windshield, per the class rules. Then strip the interior and start on a cage.
My brother works at a structural steel shop, and bent up the tubing for the frame, and plasma'd out some plates to mount the cage to. I bolted through where possible, and plug-welded everywhere else.
The rules didn't require this much cage, but I was getting it for free (thanks bro!), so I built a cage that I felt safe in. That is all 0.25" wall tubing. Safest minivan in existence right there :woott:
Threw a few door bars in, just in case :thumb:
Passenger seat back in, because this thing is still road-legal! Though we accidentally threw out the seatbelt for that seat, so in the end only the driver's seat and 3rd row middle seat are legal, since those are the only ones with belts.
Yes, you can fit two people in the front!
For some air-headed reason, Dodge decided the best place to run the main ECU and chassis electrical harness is through the front fender. One good hit and it would be down for the count, so we reinforced it with some random metal strips. Doesn't look like much, but that ended up being stupid strong.
Since the stock bumper wouldn't do much damage to everyone else's boats, we added some "whiskers". Also added additional tubing for structure (forgot to to photograph it), and I fixed the A/C because I love air conditioning an unhealthy amount. Yes, it still has no windows, but I get a nice cool draft once in a while :roflmao:
I added some switches to run some "pyrotechnics"...
Which was really just a couple air bags hidden inside suitcases! I packed one suitcase full of (unused) diapers, and the other full of dolls. Crowd loved it
We found the Haynes repair manual floating around the interior, and tech screwed it to the dashboard! Felt appropriate.
Put the seats back in, added car seats to almost every seat (and later put dolls in each car seat), and added padding to the cage everywhere.
Threw some paint on, welded the driver's door shut (per class rules), and added even more crash protection in the form of a 0.25" x 6" plate across the door. Starting to add some vinyl stickers (my friend has a vinyl cutter, so they're basically free).
More vinyl really classes it ...up? Down? Whichever way it needed to go to look like a redneck soccer mom minivan
It survived the first race (2017). I didn't get to run it this year because I was in Taiwan for work. I plan to run it next year, but with the condition of the transmission, and the new rules for the class, I don't think it will survive next year's event. But I will send it out with a bang! Just got to decide what to do for effects. The airbag diaper cannon was great, but I want something new. We have discussed an industrial bubble machine. Watching it continuously pour bubbles out as it races would be pretty amusing...
If you just want to scroll through the photos and laugh, go right ahead, I don't mind. If you're curious, feel free to read my long rambling story below!
The backstory: I live in Idaho's Treasure Valley, and Meridian Speedway (a local 1/4 mile paved oval racetrack) puts on an event called The Eve of Destruction every year. It has some normal racing, but as the night goes on the events get crazier! One of the highlights is what they call the "boat race". Basically, you get a clunker car, and hook a boat (no trailer, just the boat) behind and try to be the last man standing with what resembles most of a boat.
For obvious reasons, to run this race, you still need to meet full safety regs, which means a cage, race seat, harness, window net, fire suit, and so on. Many people just use an old race car that isn't competitive or reliable anymore and use that, but since I don't regularly race, I didn't have an old race car. So I built one!
I picked up a 1990-something Dodge Caravan with 220k miles on it for $125 from a friend of a friend. The transmission was (still is) going out, and it was becoming unreliable, so they got something better and just needed this gone. It was about how you expect for the price: poorly repaired accident damage to the front left, speedometer only works if you give it a Fonzie-love-tap in the right spot, no A/C, no ABS (didn't even have it stock!!!), and so on. It was so completely unremarkable I totally forgot to take photos before I started modifying it :spit: So I begin the mods!
First step was remove all glass except the front windshield, per the class rules. Then strip the interior and start on a cage.
My brother works at a structural steel shop, and bent up the tubing for the frame, and plasma'd out some plates to mount the cage to. I bolted through where possible, and plug-welded everywhere else.
The rules didn't require this much cage, but I was getting it for free (thanks bro!), so I built a cage that I felt safe in. That is all 0.25" wall tubing. Safest minivan in existence right there :woott:
Threw a few door bars in, just in case :thumb:
Passenger seat back in, because this thing is still road-legal! Though we accidentally threw out the seatbelt for that seat, so in the end only the driver's seat and 3rd row middle seat are legal, since those are the only ones with belts.
Yes, you can fit two people in the front!
For some air-headed reason, Dodge decided the best place to run the main ECU and chassis electrical harness is through the front fender. One good hit and it would be down for the count, so we reinforced it with some random metal strips. Doesn't look like much, but that ended up being stupid strong.
Since the stock bumper wouldn't do much damage to everyone else's boats, we added some "whiskers". Also added additional tubing for structure (forgot to to photograph it), and I fixed the A/C because I love air conditioning an unhealthy amount. Yes, it still has no windows, but I get a nice cool draft once in a while :roflmao:
I added some switches to run some "pyrotechnics"...
Which was really just a couple air bags hidden inside suitcases! I packed one suitcase full of (unused) diapers, and the other full of dolls. Crowd loved it
We found the Haynes repair manual floating around the interior, and tech screwed it to the dashboard! Felt appropriate.
Put the seats back in, added car seats to almost every seat (and later put dolls in each car seat), and added padding to the cage everywhere.
Threw some paint on, welded the driver's door shut (per class rules), and added even more crash protection in the form of a 0.25" x 6" plate across the door. Starting to add some vinyl stickers (my friend has a vinyl cutter, so they're basically free).
More vinyl really classes it ...up? Down? Whichever way it needed to go to look like a redneck soccer mom minivan
It survived the first race (2017). I didn't get to run it this year because I was in Taiwan for work. I plan to run it next year, but with the condition of the transmission, and the new rules for the class, I don't think it will survive next year's event. But I will send it out with a bang! Just got to decide what to do for effects. The airbag diaper cannon was great, but I want something new. We have discussed an industrial bubble machine. Watching it continuously pour bubbles out as it races would be pretty amusing...
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