Memorial Day weekend at The Brickyard! The Indy 500! "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," and the legendary playing field of AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, the Unsers, Parnelli Jones, Roger Penske, and countless other racing icons.
IndyCars! NASCAR musclecars aside, the IndyCar is arguably the most exciting and recognizable genre on the asphalt.Where but on the CART/IRL circuits can you drive a car that looks that sleek and is that fast and that good?
Now, thanks to Florida-based Indy Street Cars, you can drive an IndyCar-inspired kit that passes inspection. Talk about your head-turners! Think about cruising down the neighborhood in this street-legal IndyCar. Powered by a DMV-acceptable Chrysler 3.5L engine, this baby weighs only 1,960 pounds and blazes from 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds. While 55 mph on the highway is your street-legal goal, this kit can explode down the dragstrip quarter-mile in 12.9 seconds at 113 mph and can reach a top speed at the track of 152 mph.
Devon Dockery of Indy Street set out to build a car that embodies his "Born to be Wild" spirit. The Florida inventor created an inexpensive way to be wild...Indy wild and offers them to gearheads who want to create their own street legends in 300 hours or less, using a Chrysler donor for parts and a custom dedicated welded steel chassis as a platform for a Brickyard-inspired fiberglass body he pulls out of ceramic molds.
A Dockery customer, Niceville, Florida's Mike Hicks purchased his donor car, a late-'90s Dodge Intrepid, from a salvage yard for $800. He harvested the stock Dodge Intrepid mill, crankshaft, pistons, pumps, valves, exhaust, and aluminum heads and added a Supertrapp 2 1/2-inch muffler pipe and Griffin aluminum radiator to help push out 253 horses at 4,800 rpm.
Hicks uses a stock Dodge 42LE four-speed automatic transmission, stock ignition and coil, and B&M Street Bandit shifter, and he shortened the axles by 3 inches for a perfect fit.
The Indy Street ISR 20 fiberglass body sits 42 inches high on the ISR welded steel chassis, with an independent unequal-length front suspension. It hugs the asphalt on P235/50R15 tires on 15x10-inch wheels with 4-inch back spacing and stops on a dime-70 mph to 0 in 185 feet-with GM Metric Calipers and GM 12-inch disc brakes.
The interior is accentuated by Nordskog gauges, a custom dash that is integrated with the body, a Grant steering wheel, Kirkey aluminum racing seats, and black upholstery.
Hicks has taken trips as long as 650 miles and averages about 4,500 miles a year in his faux Andretti-mobile. Driving it is what he loves, though making it legal to drive was a laughable battle.
When Hicks brought his Indy Street Car down to his local DMV to get it titled, he was told he could not register and license a race car. Hicks said, "I argued with them that the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon could get licensed, though it looks like a hot dog. Why not us? Our car only LOOKS like a race car." Bottom line: He got it licensed...legally.
Legal and lithe, sexy and streetable, the Indy Street Car is one kit to check out, as it will be checked out by all who see it drive by.