World’s Fastest 2.0L ’85 Turbocharged Shelby Dodge Charger
July 2020 • By Jere Teepen, photos H&H Motorsports & Tony ThackerCarroll Shelby and Shelby American: In the 1960’s there was the Cobra, GT350, GT40, GT500, later the Series 1 and now modern versions of Shelby Mustangs which have become quite a legacy and story. But there is an unacknowledged branch of the Shelby family. From 1982 to 1987, Shelby led the Shelby Performance Center in Whittier, California, his services retained by Lee Iacocca. Their successful, image-building collaborations in the 1960’s brought them together again when Iacocca became Chairman of Chrysler in 1979. The Shelby Performance Center was tasked with building the Dodge Omni and 024 into performance cars, which they successfully managed to do.
The nature of building performance cars typically includes individuals with an interest in the vehicles they are tasked with, which leads to some racing activity. Two key players at the Shelby Performance Center were Chrysler Senior Engineer, Scott Harvey and Performance Center Manager, Steve Hope. They decided to build an ’85 Dodge Shelby Charger for land speed racing at El Mirage dry lakebed and Bonneville Salt Flats. Both Harvey and Hope had prior racing experience; Harvey in rallying and road racing and Hope in drag and land speed racing.
Steve Hope (left) and Scott Harvey built this land speed record holding ’85 Dodge Shelby Charger off campus when they worked at the Shelby Performance Center, Whittier, CA.
Combining their talents Harvey and Hope quietly assembled ‘Bonnie’ at Steve’s home garage after hours as their project was not officially sanctioned by Chrysler. The car was built to the safety standards of the day that included roll cage, lightweight seat, racing belts, and a stripped interior. From the outside, the car looked like a lowered stocker. Initially the car was powered by a naturally aspirated 2.2L 8-valve Chrysler engine and 5-speed transmission. Eventually the powertrain evolved to a turbocharged 2.2L 8-valve motor, turbocharged 2.0L 8-valve motor and finally to a turbocharged 2.0L 16-valve motor.
Hans Hermann, a racing driver who had competed at Le Mans in sports cars and in Formula One, designed the 16-valve cylinder head. This 16-valve cylinder head was an experimental piece never to go into production. A total of seven were produced and used in developmental cars that also never saw production.
Between 1984 and 1992, the team set 11 consecutive records at El Mirage and won the 1985 SCTA Points Championship.
Initial bugs were resolved at El Mirage where Bonnie set several records in a variety of classes. Some of the classes were with the stock body and other classes meant it could be raced with aerodynamic aids, a full belly pan being among them. Scott Harvey and Steve Hope campaigned the car from 1984 until 1992 and set a records at El Mirage (see below). Bonnie was the only car during this period to set a record at every SCTA event—eleven consecutive records—and their success garnered the 1985 SCTA Points Championship.
Bonneville has never been an easy place to race….
At Bonneville, they encountered a new problem: oil starvation. Each run resulted in a blown engine that led to a major thrash to rebuild and run again. Because the course length was more than three times the length of El Mirage, they found the oil system was pumping all the oil into the cylinder head leaving the oil pan dry. The fix was to have custom oil pans made which prevented this from recurring. Having resolved the oiling issue, they managed to set the G/Comp Coupe record in 1990. The record was accomplished with a degree of drama. The qualifying run was 200+ mph, but on the return run the clutch began to fade and the official time was 192+, which set the record with an average speed of 196.124 mph.
Goodwood’s Charles March, Duke of Richmond, was one of many who licensed in Bonnie.
Bonnie 2.0: Once a racecar has served its initial purpose, they are usually cast aside for the next project, Bonnie was no different. The car was taken to Scott Harvey’s home in Riverside County, CA where it sat outside until 2006. That year, Steve Hope and Chris Thoman rescued it and took it to Steve’s shop, H&H Motorsports, in Whittier, CA. The plan was to clean, re-wire, remove the stagnant turbocharged 2.0L 16-valve motor, install a naturally-aspirated four cylinder 8-valve 2.0L motor and race Bonnie again. Chris Thoman led the recommissioning with help from Jere Teepen and the technical expertise of Steve Hope.
Bonnie’s main role was to act as a fun, learning experience racecar, introducing drivers to land speed racing. Bonnie raced again at El Mirage in July 2009 in the G/PRO class and ran flawlessly, but not competitively. At this stage, setting records was not the goal. On her return to Bonneville in August 2009, she was able to get Josh Bassett, Davie Marshall, and Jere Teepen all licensed running at speeds in the 140-150 mph range. In Bonnie’s naturally aspirated 8-valve configuration, more drivers became licensed; among them, Duke of Richmond Charles March, of Goodwood Revival and Festival, and Rod Millen, off-road and sports car racer. Internally, Bonnie became known as, the ‘PR Car’ as she introduced so many people to land speed racing.
Left to right: Chris Thoman, Jere Teepen, Steve Hope and Jim Alvaney with the Rod Riders Top Points trophy for 2016.
Eventually, the four-cylinder 8-valve, naturally aspirated motor was beginning to tire. In 2013, the decision was made to seriously pursue some records and Steve Hope, Chris Thoman, Jim Alvaney, and Jere Teepen pulled the worn 8-valve motor and dusted off the 16-valve turbo. Van Dyne Engineering, Huntington Beach, CA recondition the crank, rods, block and head and rebuilt the engine. Tres Van Dyne was responsible for the rebuild and made sure everything was done properly resulting in an estimated 650 hp.
The H&H Motorsports debut at El Mirage with the 16-valve turbocharged motor was on September 14, 2014 with a top speed of 162.152 mph. The car was performing well but the team was dialing in the engine management system. Over the next few events the car increased speed until finally setting a new G/BGC record of 176.78. The records continued and the results to date are as follows:
Crew Chief Chris Thoman (left) and driver Jere Teepen complete inspection after a record run of 193.782 mph at El Mirage in October 2018.
Since the last record set in October 2018, there has been minimal racing at El Mirage due to water damage. In October 2019, there was a misfire that prevented a successful effort and November left the team with a handful of teeth from the transmissions’ fourth gear.
The initial resurrection and continued development of Bonnie could not have been possible without the contributions of the sponsors: Capital Automotive Reconditioning Services (C.A.R.S., www.capautorecon.com), USAutomotive (a British distributor of American car parts, www.usautomotive.co.uk), Lucas Oil (www.lucasoil.com), Ron Hope (RatTrapRacing.com), Stewart Bassett, and Steve Hope (H&H Motorsports).
Course conditions at the 2019 Bonneville Speed Week were abysmal and Bonnie never did make a run.
2020 has, of course, been a wash but the team is planning to run at Speed Week, Aug. 8-14, with the hope of setting more records.
1984:
May—F/Production": 142.85
June—G/Production": 134.53
July—G/Gas Comp Coupe: 129.37
October—G/Gas Comp Coupe: 133.33
November—G/Gas Comp Coupe: 136.36
1985:
May—F/Gas Comp Coupe: 141.64
June—G/Production: 136.71
July—F/Production: 145.82
September—F/Gas Comp Coupe: 154.59
October—G/Production: 137.97
November—G/Pro Turbocharged: 159.24
Stewart Bassett of USAutomotive.co.uk has been a long-time supporter and part-time driver of Bonnie.
2015:
June—G/Production: 134.53
November—G/Blown Gas Coupe: 176.786
2016:
May —G/BGC: 184.075
October—G/BGC: 185.001
November—G/BGC: 187.038
2017:
June—G/BGC: 190.587
2018:
October—G/BGC: 193.782