MEET DOUG

DRM Motorsports
There’s no question that everybody at DRM is excited about the C6 Corvette, and looks forward to taking it to new heights. This doesn’t mean we’re forgetting about what got us where we are today. The C4 and C5 are a huge part of DRM, and we’ll continue to push the envelope in developing new products and making the ones we have better. Check out below for the background of DRM and how I got started.

Message from Doug
Welcome to DRM’s web site. The staff here at DRM is proud to show you what we offer for the Camaro/Firebird, late model C4 and C5 Corvettes. I hope you’ll enjoy this site and I’m confident you’ll find what you’ve been looking for to make your car more fun to drive.

Stay on the track, and thank-you for considering DRM for your high-performance needs.

Enjoy!

Brainerd International Raceway, 1984.

DRM Background
Doug Rippie Motorsports, DRM as we know it today, was launched on an early summer day in 1992 when Rippie attended a local Corvette club event at Brainerd International Raceway with a piece of paper for a catalog and a trailer full of brake parts. But, to fully understand why DRM is so successful, we must look at where Rippie came from, how he arrived at B.I.R. on that weekend, and where he went from there.

Rippie began racing as a teenager on small town streets in southern Minnesota. Once he moved to Minneapolis, he graduated from street racing to the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). After just two years, Rippie captured the 1972 Central Division Regional Championship. In 1977 he tried his hand at Group One Trans-Am racing, and from 1980-82 raced a GT-1 Camaro. By 1984 Rippie had 12 years of racing under his belt, most of which were in a modified stock chassis Corvette. So when he had the opportunity to build a 1984 GT-1 Corvette race car from the ground up, he jumped at the chance.

1984 was shaping up to be his year. He set 3 track records, captured the Central Division Championship and went to the Series' National Championship Run-offs at Road Atlanta. During that race a sudden rain storm took out 20 competitors, including Rippie. The severity of the accident left his ride totaled and the man himself a little shook. The magnitude of his losses led him to consider management instead of driving.
The very next year, Rippie co-owned, managed and co-drove in the 1985 Playboy Series. In 1986, he continued this dual role in the Escort Showroom Stock Series. Those were big learning years for Rippie. With a partner to share the driving and business responsibilities, he was able to expand his role in car set up. Those Corvettes were test beds for many of Rippie’s brake and suspension development ideas. For the 1987 Escort Series, Rippie was on his own again, launching Rippie Racing, which would go on to be one of the most successful race teams in Corvette history.

Corvette Challenge
Road Atlanta, 1988
Bill Deters, Jeff Andretti, Bill Cooper, Bruce Feldman and Mark Dismore.

In 1988, Rippie Racing was there for the debut of the Corvette Challenge Series and won its inauguaral race with Mark Dismore driving. In 1989 Rippie Racing dominated with a four car team. They won the opener, and went on to win five more races, including three poles. They ended the season with Bill Cooper capturing the Championship. It was during these days that some of the best names in racing drove for Rippie including Mark Dismore, Shawn Hendricks, Jim Vasser, Jeff Andretti, Paul Tracey, Boris Said III and Bill Cooper. Also in 1989, Rippie began supplying Boris Said III’s ‘89 Camaro with competitive power plants. Said won the SCCA SS/GT National Run-Off Championship in 1989, ‘90 and ‘91

Dieline Corvettes
Mid Ohio, 1994.

With the end of the Corvette Challenge series in 1989, Rippie was looking for his next challenge. It came in 1990 when he contacted Reeves Callaway about building a Callaway Twin-turbo Corvette for competition in IMSA’s Super Car series. This would be the first race car ever built by Rippie for another racer. Additionally, since it was not to compete in a showroom stock series, Rippie had the latitude to try new things. He used this car as an avenue to develop what we know today as the DRM CoilOver suspension kit. The twin-turbo competed in four races in ‘91 until politics ended it’s season. IMSA officials refused to let the car compete in any more races unless 275 rear series tires were mounted in place of the 315s the car was set up for. Such a dramatic change left the car uncompetitive and unsafe. With little season left, the decision was made to wait until next year, and what a year that would be. Not for Rippie/Callaway but for Rippie/Dieline.

In 1992, Rippie returned to professional racing in the SCCA World Challenge Series with a new sponsor, the Dieline Corporation, and a new name, DRM. Managing a two car team, DRM netted a total of four wins, with R.K. Smith taking the championship and Bill Cooper not far behind. But Rippie wasn’t just winning races, he was using the race track as a test bed for product development for a DRM parts catalog. This gives definition to the phrase “Race car performance for the street” found on the cover of every DRM parts catalog. So, on that summer day in 1992 at B.I.R., Rippie and staff kept club members’ Corvettes on the track by bleeding brakes, installing pads and talking tech. This was the first time Rippie shared his racing developments with the enthusiast. The overwhelmingly positive response lit a fire in Rippie – to build DRM into the best late model Corvette total conversion company in the business.

The Black Widow Project
In December 1992, at the 40^th Anniversary Corvette Show in Palm Springs, California, Doug met Gary Cline the LT-5 Project Engineer for MerCruiser. At first they chatted. Then, as the evening grew longer, they started talking about ideas. Rippie listened and thought. He asked, "Whatta you think?" and "What if?" more than a few times. They agreed that the best idea of all would be to do more than talk.

"I think anyone who’s tops in his field wants to see what he’s created be all it can be," says Rippie. Cline, other MerCruiser LT-5 project engineers, and Lotus engineers who were involved in the project knew their engine was capable of higher performance than it had powering the ZR-1 Corvette. Doug Rippie was a kindred spirit. It was decided to work with him to produce a special LT-5 engine, the DRZ-500, also known as the "Black Engine" because each of the DRZ-500 engines produced was painted with special black paint and the "Black Widow" engine, from the nickname given by Jim Van Dorn to the eight DRM-converted ZR-1 Corvettes that are powered by DRZ-500 engines, one of which he owns.

Black Widow engine #4

The DRZ-500 engine resulted from the cooperative effort of Rippie, Cline and other MerCruiser engineers, Graham Behm of Lotus Engineering in England and Tim Holland of Lotus Engineering USA, and Chevrolet’s blessing. There were four versions:

405 horsepower DRZ-500s, 1990-92 model LT-5s updated to 1993 specifications
450 horsepower DRZ-500s, 1993 LT-5s, 50-state-legal
475 horsepower DRZ-500s, 50-state-legal
525 horsepower DRZ-500, a full race version

Special precision machining and porting, camshaft installation, and black painting was done at MerCruiser. DRM did the disassembly and assembly as well as calibration and emissions certification. There were only eight DRZ-500 engines produced, between March and July 1993, because production of the LT-5 was due to end in November of that year and time ran out to produce more than eight.

The "Black Widow" ZR-1 s powered by DRZ-500 engines are more than just an examples of why Rippie and his small band of midnight oil-burners are capable of producing. They formed a bridge between the race track and the street for DRM. High performance to Rippie is not only high horsepower. It is a finely balanced combination of power, handling and braking. To match the power of the DRZ-500, Rippie could do nothing less than develop suspension and brake packages for the ZR-1 Corvette with equally outstanding performance characteristics. The results, rave reviews by everybody who’s driven one converted by DRM to be a "Black Widow."

Since the last "Black Widow" was completed, DRM has gone on to convert ZR-1s into even more spectacular performers. The current top-of-the-line is the DRM 600 Corvette ZR-1, a direct descendent of the Black Widows powered by a 385 cubic inch 550hp engine that takes a mere 3.9 seconds to reach 60mph and just 19 seconds to 150mph covering the quarter-mile in only 11.8 seconds at 122mph. ZR-1 s converted to DRM 500 specifications, similar to the Black Widows, are powered by LT-5 engines ranging from 415hp to 475hp.

In August of 1996 a very special DRM LT-5 motor was tested in the desert at over 600 horsepower which produced 493 horsepower to the rear wheels. Everything learned by DRM has been adapted for application to all the ZR-1, LS-1, LT1/LT4 and L98 Corvettes it converts and to Camaros and Impala SSs. "Can you make me one of these.." resulted in a custom built tube frame chassis Corvette using lightweight stock components; "We know you’re the expert..." brings LT-5 factory authorized motor repairs to the DRM shop; and "Our new product would be perfect if we had your input..." creates more R & D opportunities for the Doug Rippie Motorsports team. When customers, vendors and competitors speak...Doug Rippie listens.

Everyone who’s ever driven a DRM-converted Corvette knows they run on the road like DRM race cars run on the track, up front. You only have to press the throttle pedal down or dive into a corner at speed to know that a DRM-converted Corvette is a precision driving machine....A car that responds almost intuitively and makes driving a uniquely exhilarating experience.

Believing that race cars belong on the race track, and not in a museum, DRM sold the car to a client in Switzerland, where it is winning races European circuit.

Race at Sebring
12 Hours of Sebring, 1995

In 1993, R.K.Smith nearly repeated as champion, finishing second only to Elliot Forbes-Robinson in a factory-backed Nissan 300ZX. By now, Chevrolet’s interest was shifting to the new Camaro and DRM followed. Bill Cooper finished the ‘93 season driving the DRM/Dieline Camaro. In 1994 he drove the Camaro to two wins, five poles and five top-five finishes in SCCA’s B class, helping Chevrolet capture the Manufacturers Championship

DRM would not return to SCCA in 1995. Instead Rippie would pursue a career-long dream – to compete in France at the 24 Hours of LeMans. This would prove to be the most challenging task ever undertaken by DRM.

Construction of the race car started in November of 1994 and would be the highest tech, custom bodied, built-from-scratch race car ever to come out of the DRM race shop. It would also be the first time they would race the LT5 power plant. In an effort to stay on schedule, Tommy Sapp and Mike Begley, of Sports Fab in Michigan, joined DRM’s crew for the grueling work schedule. The race car debuted four months later for testing at the 12 Hours of Sebring. After Sebring, testing and development would continue at B.I.R. and in June 1995 Rippie would live his dream by campaigning this car in the 24 Hours of LeMans.

Rippie’s high hopes for a great showing fell prey to the challenges of competing on foreign land. This left DRM with a bruised ego, but champions don’t roll over. While LeMans may not have resulted in the accolades DRM was accustomed to, the company did gain a great deal of invaluable experience. Experience that would allow them to continue to grow and branch out into new endeavors.

Doug testing a Speed Channel Challenge car in Arizona. Nov. 2000

Recently Doug and his crew have been building race cars for the Speed Channel World Challenge series and SCCA T-1 series along with the highly successful DRM C500/RSR and RS street legal cars. Much of the development that goes into our race cars filters down in to the street versions that is truly the core of DRM's business today.