Olympia Charger

Oly Express ends season with Top 10 finish

What a relief to have such a good race week-end to close the season. After two toasted transmissions and a DNF in Le Mans, we got back in the points this week-end. Thanks to great driving from ARCA's Michel Disdier, who shared the wheel with Christophe Schwartz, and outstandig wrenching from Bjoern Schmidt, the Oly Express finished 24th overall of 40 starters and 10th in the GT1 class, scoring a point in the Classic Endurance Racing championship! It was far from easy as a loose radiator and a damaged AN-12 oil connector almost stalled our week-end! But what ends well is well! So enjoy the pictures of our race week-end at Le Castellet!

Rooms and tickets for Le Mans Classic 2010

 

You better hurry as out of 36 spots, only 11 are left for you to book. The single rooms are all gone! The budget priced packages are all gone! But we still have a nice one room appartment that can accomodate 3 people, one luxurious en-suite room at the Chateau for 1 or 2 and a two bedroom appartment for 2 to 4. To book contact me via e-mail or leave a comment here below.

Oly Dodge on Danish Mopar Meet Flyer

Right in the trend of a new season of cruising and racing V8 iron about to go underway, the Danish Moparclub has issued the flyer to their yearly Mopar get together. Cool to see that it features our Oly Charger! Well, if there is enough interest from the event's sponsors, we may show up there and park it in front of the Oltelt (Beer tent, that is) !

Oly rocks at Jim Clark Revival Lausitzring

Did we have great week-end? You bet! Our race at the 2009 Jim Clark Revival was absolutely fantastic. Even though it started with a couple of fried caliper seals, the Oly Express crew once more worked wonders, so that we even finished second in class behind the Porsche 911 RSR of Daniel Schrey. Along the way, laping the 3.4 km roadcourse in 1.50s, we had great battles with Mathias Beetz and Bernhard Voslamber's BMW 2002 tii as well as Urs Müller's absolutly beautiful Aston Martin DB4 GT. Add to this a few demo sessions on the big oval alonsige Stefan Oberndorfer's Skoal Bandit Lumina, where Bjoern drove the Charger and you can imagine that we had great fun. Our thanks go to Ronny Bredhauer and his crew who did a flawless job and used all the advantages of the Lausitzring track! We'll be back for Jim Clark Revival 2010.

At which events shall we go racing in 2009 ?

Now that the new year has begun, comes two most important questions. What colors should our 2009 team shirts be and where and when shall we go racing? Where and when do you want to see the Oly Express Dodge or its little cousin the Chrysler France Hemicuda on the track? Let us know by posting a comment here!

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.

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!

Hershel McGriff back at Le Mans

Today was sure a day to remember for Team Oly Express as Hershel McGriff came back to the Le Mans track. After racing the Charger here in 1976 and one of Billy Hagan's Camaro's in 1982, Hershel, alongside with wife Sherrie, daughter Marilyn and son-in-law Tex Powell (yes, THE Tex Powell), came to France, 25 years after his last 24 hours drive.

Italian artist Oscar Morisini paints Charger

Our Charger keeps getting the fans attention. One of them, Italy's Oscar Morisini, has chosen the Oly Express as a subject for his latest artistic inspiration. As you can read on Virtual Car dot It, the Charger was the crowd's favourite at Monza. The painting will be soon shown at the famous Lugazzo Motoring Art Gallery in Brescia.

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)