ECORS Race VX

[Buffy]

I attended my first race Saturday in my VX and I must say I was very impressed. I beat this thing within an inch of its life and it just kept going! I placed 9th out of 22, not that I passed anything but because there were Jeeps breaking everywhere. So here are some build and race day pictures.

The bumper is a full winch bumper prototype that Joe will be offering soon. It is a work in progress. As a matter of fact I we didn't even have time to grind all the welds off. We will add brush guards before the next race.

Installed without the winch:





To install the bumper you have to cut and cap the front frame sections:





Spare tire mount:



OME 919 springs (my only suspension mod)



BFG KM2 33 x 10.50 x 15

[Buffy]

I was full of nerves! When I saw some of the hills we were going to climb I said " you're f'ing kidding me right????".... they weren't kidding. You have no idea how tough these trucks are... I certainly didn't! At one point in the race I went off course. I was nose down on my side, the back wheel of the truck was over my codrivers head. He said revers and floor it! I did and backed out and continued with the race.







We named the truck the Mars Rover!

[Buffy]

And here is what the VX looked like after 2 grueling hours of racing:





Here is where I was rear ended and got tire tracks on the back cladding...





And here are a series of pictures showing just how tough the bumper is:

scroll down to see the VX taking some punishment it took...

http://www.nc4x4.com/forum/index.php...2-pics.121725/

[whitebreadx]

damn the little guy did did take a beating and kept on ticking. ; )

[vt_maverick]

Dude... just think what you could do with a 5-speed in there! Those airborne pics are awesome!

[Triathlete]

Sounds like you left a great impressio with those guys! Nice job!

[89Vette]

Love the NASA "Moon Rover" decals!!!

There rest ain't bad either!

89V

[evillecutter]

freaking awesome!

[VXorado]

Nice work Buffy, looks like a ton of fun.



Someone wrote this on NC4X4 forum. Very awesome:

"The little 3 photo series of the vehicross was so brutal to see in person. I was the only one around and was cheering out loud at the top of my lungs! They slammed the rig around so much it killed the motor. I thought for sure they were done for the day but the thing fired right back up and away they went!!!"

[Etfren]

Looks like you had some fun! Awesome build, I can't wait to see more.

[Buffy]

Next up is a full roll cage, for obvious reasons. I had fuel issues all day where the truck would shut down when the RPMs got high. I will be swapping out the gas tank for a much better one and maybe having some injectors cleaned and tested. Actually the tank will be from VT_Mavericks old VX and the drive shafts are from it too. So his old VX is living on in my race truck. We are trying to come up with some suspension mods to take the bumps better. It is a work in progress. As you have seen the bumper can reall take a beating!

[Buffy]

The funniest part of the race was when they were releasing the groups of 3 trucks. Each time they would announce the driver and make and model of vehicle. Then he came to me and said..... Driving a uh.... What the hell is that thing?? What's that??? An Isuzu thing of sorts??? By the end of the race he just said here's the Mars Rover back again! Very funny! I lost a lot of time working on it by having to stop and tell people what it was. Everyone that is was very cool.

[twalker920]

Awesome job! I love how close to stock it is yet can take that beating. That's two of you competitors who have gotten air in the last few days! The temptation is strong....must...resist...

[SlowPro48]

Man that is fantastic. Wish I'd known about the race. Would love to see that in person. When/where is the next one? And yeah - suspension mods are badly needed when you hang that much additional weight off the front. I think stiffer torsion bars are available and if you do that you'll need to increase the rebound damping. Actually given the weight of the tires and the limited suspension travel and the pounding to which this VX is subject, you need to increase both compression and rebound damping. But hey - shims are cheap!

[Buffy]

I've had Sway-A-Way heavy duty torsion bars on order for almost 2 months now. Unfortunately they have been on back order. They keep saying next week..... Next week..... But that comes and goes with no bars in hand. looking into installing longer travel shocks but that will require some modification to accommodate the larger body. We have a lot of ideas for improvement just not a lot of time to get it done.