3/4 Race - Shop Truck

Bad ass, man!

But holy steering angle; it's like you're driving a truck or something!

Ok so after a couple events with the Fatty McMeats on the back I just don't like the feel with them pinched on 10" wheels. Big wide open layouts are fine, but slaloms are atrocious.

I made the jump to a 15x12 for the rear. First test tomorrow!

I had to rework the rear sta-bar location. No pics apparently, I will grab a couple later.

Here is a mounted comparison. Same tire on a 12" wheel vs 10"

Damn, that is sweet, and the aero TC in the background on the early pics is a nice looking car too. 

Thanks for keeping us updated. This is a neat build.

I have a thing for dimples. There, I said it

A very kind racer brought me a load of take-offs yesterday.

In there is a single LF to match the single LF I got from another racer a couple weeks ago. I had been holding onto that tire waiting for a mate to pair it with and replace the front tires on the truck. Timing could not be better as I have events both days this weekend.

The RF's on the rear with 12" wheels felt like a completely different tire last weekend. Still had a bit of a push that I hope is handled now with fresh tires up front too.

Rise, thread. Rise!!

I find myself in SC with a gas station pic. I am not certain that this project deserves its own thread, so I'll just stick it here and see what happens

In reply to gumby :

We're going to take bets on how many weeks before it's completely rusted out once you get it back to IN?

In reply to gumby :

As you know, I love me some Bronco II

Before the Bronco II- how the heck do you pull 310wHP/340wTQ out of a 2.3 Lima? Does it have to deal with the dual spark-plug setup? The Displacement?

Also, dem thicc boi Hoosiers 

In reply to Indy-Guy :

I can find you one. They seem to be plentiful & reasonably priced down here. 

GIRTHQUAKE said:

how the heck do you pull 310wHP/340wTQ out of a 2.3 Lima? 

BOOST

Posting because I never saw this thread before. Whoa that's a cool Ranger!

Is the bronco II windshield smashed?

In reply to Robbie :

Remnants of frost in the pic make it look worse than it is, but it will need replaced

Where did you get the fiberglass fenders from?  They have just the right amount of flare for a lowered truck with wide tires. 

In reply to JesseWolfe :

They are probably the readily available prerunner fenders.

In reply to JesseWolfe :

These fenders came from McNeil. I would not recommend them to anyone. The parts are fine, but the customer service was a complete E36 M3 show. Plenty of other companies making fenders for Rangers, pick one, anyone but McNeil.

Pretty sure I touched all my projects today, even if only for a brief moment.

I have been feeling burnt out on the whole SRSBZNS autoX thing. It's not anything acute, or even recent. Last season was pretty meh overall. The amount of work in running a vehicle on the ragged edge of racecar was hitting home; mostly in the tire care arena, within my budget. I know I could eliminate a big chunk of the problem with a larger tow vehicle and an enclosed trailer, but that is getting beyond hobby level justifications for regional autoX. I did the Divisional thing a couple years back. Put in the prep work all season, travel, overlapping schedules, all of that, and brought home the hardware to prove it, but that was then.

More recently, I had been running the SHO at a few events and enjoying a break from the labor involved with the truck. It was good enough on re71's to be competitive in HS, but still pretty slow. Running an easy button made events fun again, but something was missing. It never tried to kill me. I didn't really realize it until I co-drove a friend's '65 Mustang last weekend. 393" Windsor/T56, full catalog of Street Or Track bits underneath. This car is an animal. 285/18's square. I have driven it before, but not in the last few years and he has been continually developing it along the way. I missed the rawness, the power. I exited the car after each run out of breath and numb all over. Exhilarating. It was time to get the truck back out.

As much, or more, as I want to pull the truck out of the corner, I still don't want to do the work to campaign at any level above just having a good time. Slicks are right out, not going there this year; just no. I purchased a set of 18's with Rivals from Thinkkker, but they are still in TX... I do have these...

17x9, 275/255 Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's. Should be roughly equivalent to running Westlakes on a Miata; epic!
That'll do, Pig. That'll do.

Gotta run thru the off-season punchlist that I haven't bothered with, but if all goes well I should be good to go for the next event.

It gives the truck a nice Saleen Mustang vibe. Go drift this thing! 

In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :

Your comparison of the SHO vs. your friend's Mustang pretty much describes how I feel autocrossing the Miata vs. the DSM. It's not that it isn't challenging, it just isn't very exciting. 
 

Oh, and let me know when you're ready to sell those wheels. ;-)

I feel similar things every time i take my big serious rig to the dragstrip with my slicks on and i can have almost as much fun driving something that makes good noises to test and tune and runs a 15 and drive home.  
 

also i put the westlakes on the miata, it was glorious.  Go turn the firehawks into dust

Tractor noises!!

I feel you on the raw vs. easy auto-cross situation. If the truck is truly street-able, I found XS to be a fun way to get that visceral racing feeling without the expense and effort of trailering or swapping tires. If your truck is anything like Datsaniti, it's a terrible place to spend time on the road in. No A/C, too much noise, why are my teeth shaking, what's that smell, etc... But by the next month's event, I forget the pain and remember that epic hero-run that shaved 1 sec off my day's best. If you get the truck to a condition where you can simply toss a tool bag and helmet in, fire it up and hit the road, you might like racing it more. Street tires make autocross better in my opinion.

Datsaniti and the Racetruck sound like cousins.

I am signal lights, a windshield, and tags/insurance away from street-able. It would be a "just 'cause I can" type exercise, and not something that would get driven a lot, but I am definitely a 'sometimes drives the racecar to work' sort of guy. Reliability is already there if the last three seasons without a mechanical are any indication.

Unfortunately, the people writing the rules for CAM and XS have adopted the(asinine) "full scale to OE" terminology with regard to frame and chassis modification. This language excludes my truck from those classes because I removed 12" from the wheelbase. Now, if a guy were determined enough to cut a fully functional, shortened wheelbase Ranger apart and re-body it as a BroncoII, he would certainly be able to give those rule writers the finger.....at least until the next update....

In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :

I didn't know about that wheelbase rule... I might be in violation. I've never measured after all the chopping was done. Oops.

maschinenbau (I live here) said:

I didn't know about that wheelbase rule... I might be in violation. I've never measured after all the chopping was done. Oops.

I'm sure you are close enough. There is an allowance for incidental changes due to suspension modifications.

I just don't think a foot falls in the incidental range