Olympia Charger

Oly Express at Monza'08: first DNF since '06

Our 2008 vintage racing season started at Monza this week-end. After unloading the car, we had a good first day of free practice. The added brake cooling ducts worked fine, the engine ran very strong. Only the harder compound GOODYEAR's were...well, too hard and I was drifting in Curva Grande and in the Parabolica! Saturday Qualifying went great and we improved our 2007 best time by 1.5 seconds.

Oly Express 2008 Season Team Shirts

Our new team shirts have just come in today! These shirts, on which you'll find the logos of our sponsors Hippopotamus Le Mans, MOPARSHOP, MOTUL, NITRO, DODGE France, Chateau Claymore and Chiron Publicité, are our official 2008 team wear. Each of our VIP guests will also receive one at Le Mans Classic. All of our fans can buy one for $40 including shipping to the USA. You can order yours by writing to oly DOT express AT free DOT fr or by leaving a comment below.

Le Mans Classic 2008 entries almost final

Even before the March 15 deadline, up to 90% of the Le Mans Classic strting grids have been filled. To check if your favorite team or what exotic cars will be racing there, you should download the current selectees on the Le Mans Classic website.

2008 Oly Express fan card by Pixeleye

Here is our new fan card! A considerable quantity was made thanks to our sponsor Pixeleye Interactive. Pixeleye also did the photography and design for this card. What you see above is the front side. On the back side, you'll find informations about the Dodge, its racing history and its records alongside with smaller pictures. You can get one signed at the CER races in Monza and Silverstone and, of course, at Le Mans Classic 2008. For those who cannot be at the tracks, we'll be glad to send you one home if you drop us an e-mail.

Happy New Year 2008 !

We had a great 2007 with races at Monza, Nürburgring and Reims. On top of that, driver and crewmember DIck Pierson recorded his own victory over a cancer! As a strong and bonded team, we are looking forward to our third racing season. May 2008 bring to all of you and us peace, health and  happiness!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

This is the third Christmas since the website of the rebrewed Oly Express went online. We had a great year racing the big Dodge in Monza, Nürburgring and Reims, three different tracks in Europe, where no NASCAR racer ever set its Goodyear slicks before! Another special highlight was Hershel McGriff himself, being reunited with the Oly Express in Le Mans! But most important, we had a great time thanks to the tremendous spirit within our Team! Merry Christmas!

Oly Express is in Facebook!

You can be a good old stock car from the 1970s and still be up to date! Having said that, we decided to create a Facebook profile for our racecar. You can check out the Oly Express on the web's latest craze and become a friend of the most active vintage racing Dodge by clicking right here!

Extra lighting for Le Mans Classic 2008

You will probably have noticed that the Oly Express has now two extra lights sitting on its front spoiler. Since we had to remove the inner high beams to route extra fresh air to the brakes in Monza, we had to figure out where to put the now missing lights in order to see good enough at high speed in the Le Mans night.

Le Mans Classic 2008 countdown begins!

Even though Le Mans Classic 2008 is still more than 9 month away, Team Oly Express is already busy to be ready for the fourth edition of the greatest vintage race in the World. First, we filed our application. The organizers will pick 400 nominees out of 1600 expected applications for the race!

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... ignition: HEMI roars at Reims

One of our fans filmed the Dodge as we started it on the pregrid. Watch for the overrich mixture blasting out of the exhaust!

Oly Express wins Races at Reims WEEA

Despite a dozen hale bay chicanes that totally changed the original spirit of the 4.4 miles long Reims high speed track, the Oly Express had no mercy for any of the Porsche and Aston Martin on the grid! The night race also allowed us to test the newly mounted additionnal lighting for Le Mans Classic 2008!

Oly Pit Crew at the Zakspeed Lounge

Thanks to Chrysler Germany and Zakspeed Racing, the official Dodge Racing Team in Deutschland, we could relax between rounds at the Zakspeed VIP lounge, which is right above the Nürburgring Pitlane.

Team impressions from the Nürburgring

I just received some great shots of our car and team at the Nurburgring from Arnaud Remy and Rolf Thieme. They reflect the mood and spirit at the track so much better than just words. These moments of shared fun are what makes our racing great.

Our American Crewmembers Tour Vaduz

While the race week-end gets closer, Dick and Sally take a few days of in Germany and Switzerland to get in the right groove. Thanks to Moesi, they had a nice evening in Liechtenstein. Judging by these pictures here, it was even more than just a nice evening!

Dick Pierson to drive at Nürburgring CER

Dick Pierson, our fans favourite driver and member of the original McGriff team, will be with us at the Nürburgring on June 29 and 30! Dick and Christophe will team up as drivers to race the Oly Express Charger at the famous F1 track.

More video from Charger at Monza CER

Here is more inboard footage from the Dodge Charger at Monza. The 6 minute long video shows two and a half of the qualifyng laps. Too bad that we had no time to turn on the camera for the race! We'll make that up at the next Classic Endurance Race on June 30 at the Nürburgring!

Just 10 Oly Express Team shirts for sale!

Once that our crew, drivers and sponsors were all dressed up with the official 2007 Oly Express team shirt, we found out that we have exactly 10 left. Now here is your chance to buy one of these at 49 EURO plus shipping. To order, either e-mail us at Oly Express or try your luck by bidding for an Oly shirt on Ebay !

Monza's gruelsome first chicane

Monza is really a cool and fast track, except for that first chicane between the main straightaway and Curva Grande. The Charger got up to 170 mph on the straight, but I had to slow it down to as little as 40 mph to get through here. Trying to keep the momentum made the Dodge roll quite a bit. If you look close (or click on the picture to enlarge it), you can see that the front right tyre is barely touching the ground!

Photo: Don Cann (Vintage Motorsports Magazine)

Monza Classic Endurance Race Results

You'll find the official results of our Monza Classic Endurace Race, by clicking here. We finished 19th overall and 7th in our class, scoring 3 points for the Classic Endurance Cup.

Monza Dream Team: the Oly Pitcrew

Having a great car and a driver, that can (almost) keep it on the track while trying to go fast, is one part of performing in a race. But, we would never ever have gotten from 32nd on the starting grid to 19th at the finish without the tremendous efforts, ingenuity and dedication of the Oly Express pitcrew. Every time an issue arised, you guys worked hard on the car to fix it quickly between the rounds. Thank you so much! You did the tough part all week-end, so this success is for you! From left to right: Pierrot, Björn, Alex, Thierry and Bernhard.

Top Le Mans drivers like the Oly Express

Quite a few top Le Mans Series drivers visited our garage during the Monza week-end. Among those was Stephane Ortelli (1998 Le Mans overall winner) and Soheil Ayari (2 top ten overall finishes at Le Mans). Both were stunned by the Charger. Stephane said it was like a predecessor of the Saleen that they both drive this year.

As you can see, we are in good company!

Roberto Motta's great Monza Oly pictures

We are very pleased to receive some pictures from one of our italian fans by e-mail. Roberto Motta, a photographer for Auto d'Epoca magazine, sent us three great shots and gave us permission to feature them on the Oly Express website for you to enjoy. Here, I'm coming out of the Variante Ascari, a fun S-combination where the Charger was in 3rd gear at about 4000 rpm. From there it is flat out to up to 175 mph before braking for the Parabolica.

Olympia Charger races at Monza (Italy)

To say that we had a great week-end would almost be an understatement. Monza was a blast! The car had its troubles with the brakes, but performed very well thanks to our pit crews relentless efforts and ingenuity.

Hot Laps at Rocroi prior to Monza CER Race

We took our Charger to GTS Automotive's test site at Rocroi (F) in order to do a complete shakedown before Monza. Needless to say that we had a great day.

Business as usual for the NASCAR Pit crew

It was a fascinating life for the entire pit crew while it lasted; going to work on Monday, working on the car for the first three days of the week, then off to the track for the next four days, two travel days and two race days.

Oly Express 2007 Team shirts out now!

Our team shirts for the 2007 season have just come in today. These shirts, made thanks to our sponsors MOTORAVER, MOPARSHOP, MOTUL, NITRO and CAMTECS, will be our official team wear. Based on the same pattern as the original 1976 and our 2006 Le Mans shirts, they withstand pit work and look good at the drivers meeting.

Dick Pierson wins race against cancer

For the next few weeks, Dick Pierson will be writing some of his NASCAR memories on the Olympia Charger Blog. Dick is somehow forced to take a few weeks off, as he explains in his own words. In the meantime, the team is very admirative of Dick, who fought his cancer in a great way. Hey, but didn't we all expect that from the guy who set the teams lap record on the Le Mans 24 Hours track?