In reply to 81cpcamaro:
Mine did have initial push going in. With no so sticky tires, I found braking harder a little early, then throttling through the corner once the front is pinned under brakes.
Made for some sweet oversteer that was very easy to control.
There haven't been a whole lot of trucks in LeMons. Reliability is generally good as long as you don't over-rev them, but they're generally a bit heavy for the power and therefore pretty slow. Some have done well, though; there was an S-10 that got first in B Class (I think). It was well done with lots of homebrew aero and a 4.3 V6, if memory serves. Regardless, it did very well.
XJ Cherokee also has a small but strong showing, with an above-average DOMINATION score. Team Petty Cash is the obvious standout; I think they even have a couple overall wins. Their chassis setup is essentially identical to the $20XX Challenge Jeep that keeps setting autocross FTD, though the two teams arrived at it independently. I'm sure they'll share their secrets with you.
There was also a mid-engine twin-turbo G20 van. It did not do very well.
One of our Lemons cars, The Boat, is based on a 94 S10, it just has a boat attached to it. Here it is in JAWS livery as the Orca.
It has been in something like 8 races now, and has been quite reliable. It is the TBI 4.3 with an NV3500 transmission. We have done almost nothing to the motor and it keeps going, just a plug change, oil cooler, heavy duty fan clutch, and it just keeps going. We did lose 5th/reverse in the trans after 7 races, but swapped in a junkyard unit. For brakes, we have 99+ 2WD blazer spindles and brakes which are much larger, while others use B body spindles with some mods. For suspension, we have some lowering springs all around, ZQ8 sway bars, and bilstein shocks, and a few shims in the front end for 3 degrees of camber. Most of the suspension mods are junkyard finds. We run 17x8" crater soft 8's with 245/40/17 BFG Rival tires.
Overall, it handles far better than a truck with a boat on it has any right to. It has been reliable mostly because we shift at about 4200 RPM, though going above that is almost pointless as there isn't much power past it anyway. We initially had 2.73 gears which were awful, but swapped to 3.42's which are perfect. The biggest problem we have now is getting the power down. The inside rear tire spins very easily, even with the eaton limited slip we have now. We had a mini spool in it with the 2.73 gears which was great on track, terrible in the paddock, so we are deciding now how to solve that problem. It has been in contention for first in class C on numerous occasions. Parts are readily available and cheap, and upgrades are cheap and easy to find, mostly from F or G body, or other S10 stuff from the GM parts bin. It's not fast, but that might be partially to the boat that's on it! It is fairly easy to drive and fairly forgiving, and we have been impressed with the reliability.
In reply to Alan Cesar:
Team Petty Cash is running a $1,000 Savvy Off Road Big Brake kit, a 6.0L LS engine, and now a T56. I’d hope that thing would be quick.
Well anyone who has ever used the brakes hard on a Cherokee knows it's going to need SOME kind of brake upgrade for road course work, even with weight loss. There are factory jeep parts upgrades that can be done but the fronts are not super simple. The rear disc swap is pretty simple.
I'm another one of "The Boat" drivers that Sonic posted about above. I would say +1 for sure about the S10. Like he said, our boat...uh, truck...is far faster than it has any right to be considering what it really is. When I was driving it at Summit Point, I was hunting down cars that should be far faster than I am. You have to b!tch slap it around, but that's half the fun of it. It's been much more reliable than I had ever expected it would be. We whip the snot out of it and it comes back for more. I love the boat, it's a blast.
PseudoSport wrote: In reply to Alan Cesar: Team Petty Cash is running a $1,000 Savvy Off Road Big Brake kit, a 6.0L LS engine, and now a T56. I’d hope that thing would be quick.
They had quite a lot of success with the 4.0 Jeep engine before swapping the LS in. That V8 is a recent development.
Another team that has had great success is TGTW Offroad Racing with their Cherokee and 4x4 Comanche.
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