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Hey Everyone, just sharing this recent build and race we did.
I found a salvage, but mostly complete '04 manual coupe for sale about 5 hours away for $750 and decided it would be perfect for our next Lemons build. The Lemons folks have been begging for someone to bring a Crossfire for years, so that also helped convince us.
I guess the story is that the guy bought it as a parts car a few years ago, didn't use much from it, then sold his other crossfires and had no need for it. It had most of the interior stripped out, but it was all stored nicely and in good shape (that helps offset the Lemons budget), and needed some front end work from the crash. It was also missing the front fenders and bumper cover, but everything else was there. It even started and drove onto the trailer!
It would have been ideal to find another scrap yard crossfire to get a front end from, but all the crossfires that popped up lately have also had front end damage, so we ended up fabbing an upper radiator mount and hood support, and sourcing some fenders from another scrap yard crossfire. The radiator was a giant 3-row aftermarket $100 Chinese radiator meant for a turbo supra (we run one in our other car and it cools a v8 just fine, and it was much cheaper than a Crossfire radiator)
I then built a roll cage for it. It was pretty tough to get the seat mounted low enough to give good head clearance with the cage, but eventually I managed to make it work. I had to cut a lot of the transmission tunnel out and remove the rear catalytic convertors to get the Sparco seat centered on the wheel. I also kept the doors intact so the power windows would still work, makes it nice for hauling to events in weather and outdoor storage.
This was the first cage I'd built and it turned out great, got compliments from the tech inspector. I also HAD to run the "Crossfire" sill plates, just to keep it classy.
My kid, future race car driver!
In a cost savings move for the first race, I re-machined the hubs for a 5x114 pattern with lug studs instead of bolts so we could run some of the many sets of 17x9 Mustang wheels and used race tires we had laying around from our other car. It worked great, so its tempting to keep running these wheels. I'll be sticking with 17's regardless just due to tire price, 18's are much more expensive.
Last edited by Egesledder; Jun 7, 2022 at 07:34 PM.
We weren't really sure what to expect going into the race since there's almost no one out there that actually races these. We keep being told that the Crossfire was "born for Lemons racing" since on paper it was outdated, under performing, and over priced the day it debuted, so expectations were... average at best.
To my surprise, the car ran awesome the entire weekend with ZERO issues. I had a team of 6 rookie drivers running it as our "B" team and they did almost 300 laps in it. I did do one 30 minute stint in it and was thoroughly impressed at how decent it was for being completely bone stock (minus tires and racing pads/fluid). It has plenty of power to be really competitive at Lemons pace, and handled surprisingly well. I was worried about the old school steering box feeling super vague in the corners, but it actually wasn't that bad. The stock brakes although pretty small, worked quite well at a slower rookie pace. I didn't get them to fade in my stint, but was also hesitant to rely on them too much and didn't push them.
So yea, overall, we were all very impressed with it after having low expectations going into the race. I'm excited to keep evolving the car into a more competitive car. First upgrades coming soon are bigger brakes and stiffer suspension.
Oh yea, our other race car is a Cadillac 4.9 V8 swapped miata. It gets zero penalties at Lemons because it was such a weird motor, but it has the Lemons track record at High Plains Raceway in CO.
Awesome job!!! I wanted to be the first, but couldn't bring myself to hack up my AutoX car for Lemons. I'm running SRT6 springs, brakes and a larger H&R front sway bar. 74mm throttle body and a tune from the MSS.
Oh nice! I'm interested in your opinions on how the front sway bar and spring changes helped or changed the handling. Also interested in how the throttle body and tune did on the track.
We're currently doing big S600 brakes (biggest we could fit under our 17" wheels), taking as much weight out of everything as possible, and looking to suspension changes next. First step with suspension is making/sourcing some arms so we can adjust camber/caster. Shocks/springs and sway bars would be next.
The hope is that we can get it to run with the top 5 cars in Lemons on lap times reliably with the stock N/A motor, then talk about adding a supercharger.
Speaking of which, if anyone on this forum reads this and has the AMG/SRT supercharger they're willing to part with, let me know!
Oh nice! I'm interested in your opinions on how the front sway bar and spring changes helped or changed the handling. Also interested in how the throttle body and tune did on the track.
We're currently doing big S600 brakes (biggest we could fit under our 17" wheels), taking as much weight out of everything as possible, and looking to suspension changes next. First step with suspension is making/sourcing some arms so we can adjust camber/caster. Shocks/springs and sway bars would be next.
The hope is that we can get it to run with the top 5 cars in Lemons on lap times reliably with the stock N/A motor, then talk about adding a supercharger.
Speaking of which, if anyone on this forum reads this and has the AMG/SRT supercharger they're willing to part with, let me know!
Everything I did helped a bunch, the front sway bar keeps it flatter so i have less wheel spin on the inside. I'm also running KYB rear shocks, and Bilstein's on the front. the throttle body / tune feels like 30+ HP gain, plus I had him tune to 6700 rpm rev limit, turn the fan on sooner and ignore the rear O2 sensors. 18" front and rear wheels helped the balance of the car overall. (You're probably roughly the same with your 17's)
The stock NA engine won't handle a supercharger, the internals aren't built for it - you'd need to find a SRT6 engine to swap in. Realistically the 5.4 Mercedes is a drop in engine that will get you to roughly 360 HP (That's my next upgrade.)
Josh Chase at The Mercedes Swap Shop out of CA is the expert on all things Mercedes / Crossfires. He helped a guy build the 1st 6-speed SRT6 not long ago.
there's also a guy that's running a turbo on a Crossfire 😎
If you're on FB, there are roughly 10+ Crossfire forums with a ton of info.
Gary,
Which front sway bar did you select, and where did you source it. I am not finding anything similar on the H&R site. I have a V8 in my car, and the now overly front end heavy car could probably use something a bit beefier up there.
24 Hours of Lemons Crossfire
