"Turbo" Terry Ryan

There's a new threat at the strip in Portland, Oregon:

I've been in to turbo cars since 1988. The fascination with the Turbo Caravan came when I found Paul Smith's website on the net. That led me to Gus Mahon's website which was also very inspirational. I have been driving V-6 Caravans as my family transportation for several years. I like the way they drive and they are very practical.

I found my Turbo minivan at an auto auction. It was in the "non-running" section. It was donated to the National Kidney Foundation by the original owner. I paid $150.00 for it and towed it away. Spark plugs and wires later and it was running!

I have a few friends that have fairly quick street cars. Most of us also have faster race cars as well. I made the decision to secretly modify my van to the point were I knew it would run 12's before unveiling the project to my friends!

I finally got it almost finished in early July of 2002. I had one of my good buddies come over to help me finish it up. He had no idea of what he was there to help me work on. When we went into my shop and he saw the minivan with the 3" exhaust and Spearco front mount he was grinning ear to ear!

My first trip to the track netted a 15.11 on street tires. My next time out I went 14.15 again on street tires. Then I took it to an 1/8 mile track and tried some slicks. At 20 psi I ran 8.62 that day which got me past my buddies Mustang (he was the one that came to my shop and helped me finish the van). I decided to try the slicks in the 1/4 mile. I ran the best of 13.34 the first time that I ran slicks in the quarter mile! Three trips to the track later netted me my best of the season--12.91@104.74 MPH--making my minivan the second fastest Turbo Caravan in the country!

My mods are simple:

In late 2003, I swapped to a mildly-ported G-head (a little cleanup work in the bowl area) and a custom 3-bar calibration from Relentless Performance. With these changes, it was back to the track for a scorching 12.69 @ 106.35 MPH on a 1.91 60-ft time. A few days later, I hit the dyno with this exact same setup; the van put 302 HP & 321 lb-ft to the wheels! With this baseline, I'm going to see how much I can tweak it over the winter.

I dedicate this story and my successful 12 second mission to the memories of Gus Mahon. He is and will be missed forever!