MD Motorsports #1699 Big Dog build

[reddman]

Well, it's not quite 4wd, but it is strictly off-road, so I'm posting the build here to show one of the other kinds of off road vehicles that we work on here, in addition to crawlers and daily driver rigs.

MD Motorsports is putting together this single seat class 1600 desert race car for Allen Gerber, the owner/president of Bonneville Off Road Racing (BOR). Some of you are probably familiar with BOR, they put on the Wendover 250 last September, which was the first race featuring the new 4400 rock crawler class for BOR (btw if you want to try your hand at racing your crawler, BOR is the place to start)

In the next two weeks we will take this freshly powdercoated chassis from a pile of parts to race ready. Prep for race cars, prerunners, rockcrawlers, and sand rails is a major part of what we do here at MD, in addition to full service design, fabrication, and mechanical work. I figured you guys might wanna see this car come together, so let's get started with some pics. Here is the chassis on Monday morning...

 

[reddman]

Monday's focus was the front end. The suspension is a VW based trailing arm design with King 2" triple bypass shocks controlling 10" of travel. Don got everything from the spindles to the steering wheel hub installed, and some of the firewalls. The VW bus tranny also was cleaned up and set in place.

 

[Tacoma]

That looks great! What do they let you work on? heheh

just kidding, you know I like your work. This is going to be a sweet thread.

ps. update your avatar! The buggy is way cooler.

 

[anderson750]

Allen is a great guy. I have known he and his family for many years from motorcycle racing.

 

[reddman]

That looks great! What do they let you work on? heheh

just kidding, you know I like your work. This is going to be a sweet thread.

ps. update your avatar! The buggy is way cooler.

I'm fabbing up a whole new dash and center console for the MD Motorsport's class 1 race car (#1510) while Don is doing all the mechanical work on 1699.

I would update the avatar, but I'm so used to it. Plus the buggy pic is kind of a reward for clicking on my avatar.

Allen is a great guy. I have known he and his family for many years from motorcycle racing.

Yeah the Gerber family is awesome, and has some serious talent when it comes to bike racing!



Here's Tuesday's progress. The rear suspension is pretty much wrapped up. It's sporting King 3" quadruple bypass shocks, Fodrill arms, and 300M torsion bars. If I remember correctly it swings about 16" of wheel travel, but it's been about a year since I built his shock mounts.

 

[reddman]

If you guys have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to post up!

 

[Herzog]

Nice! Just post more pictures!

 

[BenHanksRacing1]

Hey Redd long time no see! Good to hear things are still going at MD, But why build that single seat? What are his plans for it? And How many races will you be hitting this year? Are you coming to the hammers? And most of all when will you Finnish that damb Willy's? That thing is bad! Ben

 

[reddman]

Nice! Just post more pictures!

On their way!

Hey Redd long time no see! Good to hear things are still going at MD, But why build that single seat? What are his plans for it? And How many races will you be hitting this year? Are you coming to the hammers? And most of all when will you Finnish that damb Willy's? That thing is bad! Ben

Ben, good to hear from you too!

Most 1600's are single seat, they are limited to a 1600cc vw motor, which only makes about 70hp running on 112 octane race fuel ( ). The added weight of a wider chassis, second seat, and second body makes the car less competitive. He will of course be racing it in BOR, and probably a few other races too, like the Mint 400, etc.

MD has abreviated our race schedule this year. We will be racing all of the BOR races, and a few of the races on the BITD and SNORE schedule, but we aren't going to join the points chase for BITD this year.

I don't think I'll make it to KOH this year. Are you guys going down? I still haven't ruled it out...

The Willys has a "hopefully done date" of 11:59 pm 12-31-2010, I'll start a build thread for that pretty soon here now that it's starting to look like something.

 

[Bart]

Looking forward to seeing the Willys on the trail. That is one sic rig.

 

[reddman]

Well Wednesday's progress consisted of assembly of the 300M gun drilled axles, lightened CVs, raced out 1600cc motor, fuel safe cell, seat, and all the pedal assemblies.

Check out the custom seat sliders I built for him last year, pretty slick, and lots stronger and less sloppy than your typical slider. :greg:

 

[reddman]

A few more shots of Wednesday's progress...

 

[BenHanksRacing1]

Yes we are going down to KOH! Dam thats alot of cash for 70HP lets just say well -never mind! Cool mwn get to work on the cool rig (willys)

 

[reddman]

Yes we are going down to KOH! Dam thats alot of cash for 70HP lets just say well -never mind! Cool mwn get to work on the cool rig (willys)

It's a pretty cheap class to run, other than the motor (it costs $6000 to $7000 to build one of these up to 70hp). It sounds kinda boring with that little power, but it's actually supposedly one of the funnest classes to race in. Rob MacCachren gets paid to drive all kinds of race cars, and he chooses to race 1600 for fun.

The Willy's thread will be up soon, promise!

 

[reddman]

Sorry about the lack of updates!

This thing should be done either tomorrow or Thursday. Don has been a busy bee getting the wiring and back up to race standards.

 

[reddman]

A few more to get the pics caught up to it's current status...

 

[Tacoma]

sexy.