DZeckhausen's Supercharged SRT-8

[XCITsNU]

This is one nice ride. Can we get some closeups of the car and details. We don't need to wait for an article to get details from the source itself do we? I say we have it as the 300c of the month with a full blown review with a minimum of 30 closeup, high res pictures.

[DZeckhausen]

Originally Posted by XCITsNU

This is one nice ride. Can we get some closeups of the car and details. We don't need to wait for an article to get details from the source itself do we? I say we have it as the 300c of the month with a full blown review with a minimum of 30 closeup, high res pictures.

I've been meaning to do a long write-up on this car, but I just havne't had the time. So I think I'll start the story of this car here on this thread and add little bits and pieces as I can find the time.

The owner of the car is a friend of mine from Las Vegas, AJ Greco. He contacted me out of the blue several years ago, looking for my help to acquire a Lingenfelter Impala SS that was near me. He bought the car and then proceeded to do amazing things to it. But let's talk about the SRT8!

AJ called me this summer with an idea to build a modern hot rod based on the SRT8 and show it at SEMA. The problem was, his local dealer wanted more than $40K over sticker! I made a quick phone call to a great dealership in Langhorn, PA (Reedman) and hooked him up with an SRT8 at sticker. When it came in, a couple months later, we didn't have much time to get things ready for SEMA. So we went right to work.

With zero miles on the odometer, the car was taken by flatbed to Kooks Custom Headers in Bay Shore, New York. George Kook, the owner, had just taken delivery of a new SRT8 and was planning to build a complete set of headers and exhaust using his car as the test fixture. Since we were on a tight schedule, AJ's SRT8 was used instead. The very first set of Kooks headers and exhaust was done about 3 weeks later and the car was then transported (still with less than 5 miles on the odometer!) to Texas for the remaining work.

The very first set of Kooks SRT8 headers, prior to installation on our project SRT8

When the car was shown at SEMA, George Kook came by to check it out at the Chrysler booth.

From left - George Kook Sr., AJ Greco (the owner of the SRT8), George Kook Jr, unknown

[XCITsNU]

Tease


Thanks for the great start! Can't wait to read more! I found this, but want details from the man himself...

http://www.bigwigracecars.com/CimtexSRT8.htm

I was actually searching Google for info on AJ's Impala SS. Didn't expect to find a little info on the SRT-8, but we want more!!!

[srt8danno]

Great find XCITsNU! Very impressive looking beast for sure. I can hardly wait for the next installment on the story. I really love that two tone color! So it was originally a silver car? They left the top part the original silver or did they do the whole car? Great work for sure!! Quite an honor to be featured at SEMA!

[QuikSilver]

How does it run with the S/Charger. Did GSM do the work or someone else in Texas? Really curious as am looking into a S/C for my SRT-8

Originally Posted by DZeckhausen

I've been meaning to do a long write-up on this car, but I just havne't had the time. So I think I'll start the story of this car here on this thread and add little bits and pieces as I can find the time.

The owner of the car is a friend of mine from Las Vegas, AJ Greco. He contacted me out of the blue several years ago, looking for my help to acquire a Lingenfelter Impala SS that was near me. He bought the car and then proceeded to do amazing things to it. But let's talk about the SRT8!

AJ called me this summer with an idea to build a modern hot rod based on the SRT8 and show it at SEMA. The problem was, his local dealer wanted more than $40K over sticker! I made a quick phone call to a great dealership in Langhorn, PA (Reedman) and hooked him up with an SRT8 at sticker. When it came in, a couple months later, we didn't have much time to get things ready for SEMA. So we went right to work.

With zero miles on the odometer, the car was taken by flatbed to Kooks Custom Headers in Bay Shore, New York. George Kook, the owner, had just taken delivery of a new SRT8 and was planning to build a complete set of headers and exhaust using his car as the test fixture. Since we were on a tight schedule, AJ's SRT8 was used instead. The very first set of Kooks headers and exhaust was done about 3 weeks later and the car was then transported (still with less than 5 miles on the odometer!) to Texas for the remaining work.

The very first set of Kooks SRT8 headers, prior to installation on our project SRT8

When the car was shown at SEMA, George Kook came by to check it out at the Chrysler booth.

From left - George Kook Sr., AJ Greco (the owner of the SRT8), George Kook Jr, unknown

[FreebirdSRT]

After speaking with David Z a few times today. Thanks for all of your help and input david. I live in Houston, Texas and the 300 is still at the shop here in Texas. Hopefully next week I will get to road trip to the shop and get a first hand view of the wicked 300 before it ships out again. I will post here on 300forums, an update, and if it is OK with David, I will post some up close pics of the 300 for all to see.


BTW David, My 96 Impala SS was show quality, just didn't feel like shipping mine all the way to Lingenfelter when capable people here in Houston to do the job. After his death, did the Lingenfelter name and Co continue on today?

Mark in Houston

[DZeckhausen]

Originally Posted by QuikSilver

How does it run with the S/Charger. Did GSM do the work or someone else in Texas? Really curious as am looking into a S/C for my SRT-8

GS Motorsports is in Orange County, California. They shipped their supercharger kit to Darrell and Tim Cinbanin, the brothers who own Cimtex Rods in Jarrell, Texas. Cimtex Rods did the vast majority of work on the car.

Prior to SEMA, the car was taken back to California to be fine tuned on the dyno. But all the installation and fabrication work was done in Texas. Virtually all the hoses and fittings that came with the supercharger were tossed out and replaced with Aeroquip parts, since this was going to be a show car. Hose clamps just didn't cut it.

So you can put faces to the names, here are the guys that did most of the work:

Tim Cinbanin, AJ Greco (SRT8 owner), Darrell Cinbanin

Note the position of honor the project SRT8 had in Chrysler's booth. They had it on a raised platform, right out front and center. That was pretty cool.

Here's a close-up of the plaque next to the car:

[DZeckhausen]

Getting back to the story of how the car evolved ...

As the car was sitting in Kook's shop, having the headers fabricated, AJ was trying to figure out a paint scheme for the car. He wanted to do a two-tone paint job, so I sent him links to every two-tone car I had ever seen here on the forums. Almost everyone followed the natural body lines when deciding where to break from one color to the other. But neither of us liked that. The brothers (Tim and Darrell) at Cimtex, working with Rodney Hutcherson at Total Kaos Design came up with a totally different way to paint the car. When I saw the tape lines, I was quite skeptical.



After they finished taping the car, Tim and Darrell masked it off and painted the bottom half with House of Colors "True Blue", keeping the top half the stock silver. With the graphic work not done yet, I still wasn't crazy about the lines.




But after Rodney Hutscherson spent over a hundred hours painted the graphics and borders, it suddenly all came together. The level of detail was incredible, with all paint and graphics continuing into the interior door and trunk panels.




The painted on SRT8 badge and faux side "openings" look much better in person than in this photo. There's a 3-dimensional quality that simply can't be captured in a photo. And the "8" in the SRT8 logo looks like it is made from inset jewels and it sparkles as the light hits it. Again, photos do not do it justice.




Here you can see how the eight layers of hand rubbed clearcoat act like a mirror. The Las Vegas Hilton can be seen reflected in the back of the car.

[srt8danno]

Thanks for the explanation of the paint job. I was wondering if they kept the factory silver or not since they had so many layers of clear I thought it might have looked out of balance. I also like how they divided up the color. It doesn’t follow any of the other two tone jobs I’ve seen on this board – that I can recall. Very unique- but damned fine for sure. Thanks again and look forward to more stories!!

[DZeckhausen]

Originally Posted by srt8danno

Thanks for the explanation of the paint job. I was wondering if they kept the factory silver or not since they had so many layers of clear I thought it might have looked out of balance. I also like how they divided up the color. It doesn’t follow any of the other two tone jobs I’ve seen on this board – that I can recall. Very unique- but damned fine for sure. Thanks again and look forward to more stories!!

I keep meaning to write more about this car and I keep getting buried by work. But if you want to see some really nice photos of the car in the Painted Desert in Nevada, then pick up the latest copy of Super Rod Magazine. The car made the cover of the March 2006 issue and there's a great 6-page article inside!