WRC Urban Rally Ranger

[97BlackBetty]

I think he got pissed and bolted, I havent seen him on here since.

 

[dburton07]

yea probably

probably finally realized he had waaaaayyyy to much on his plate to do for a year, but i would have loved to hear the story about him an joHnny u's ( i got such a kick out of that hahaha) showdown, *dun dun dunnnnn*

oh well, good way to pass somtime on this snowy/rainy spring break day lol

i hope another dream story comes up that would be fun.

"so yea guys, i was thinkin, i want to build up my ranger, 'Project: White Lightning Thunder Kracker!!!!!!!!!' dually axle swap front n rear, 20" lift, 8 63" tractor tires, 900 V20 big block. but theres a catch, i need this done for next weekds mud runs....any help would be awesome, but diesel guys, go away i dont like you"


hahahaha i crack myself up

 

[atvoutlaw]

yea probably

"so yea guys, i was thinkin, i want to build up my ranger, 'Project: White Lightning Thunder Kracker!!!!!!!!!' dually axle swap front n rear, 20" lift, 8 63" tractor tires, 900 V20 big block. but theres a catch, i need this done for next weekds mud runs....any help would be awesome, but diesel guys, go away i dont like you"


hahahaha i crack myself up

now that was funny

 

[koda6966]

Lets not complain about whether you think it would be a good idea, or cost efficient.
Many people have dreams of what they want to build. I personaly would love to have a WRC Ranger, or even a Desert Racer, WHICH ARE DIFFERENT.

Mkay.

Oh wait thats right.

Its JOHNNY

Come on, i dont even get that mad and flip out when people mess up my name.
AND I HAVE AN EASY ONE

 

[dburton07]

now that was funny

heh, nice signature, i thought it was pretty funny myself i was chuckelin as i was writin it

 

[JohnnyU]

Let's not start down that road again Koda.....

 

[ckblum]

Look what I started. Or I guess restarted.

JohnnyU, I gotta say I'm kinda surprised with you. I've been on quite a few forums and to be honest I can't believe you're a "Super Mod". Just reading through this thread, you were just as much of a wang and provocative as any of the other guys. I know you have your own opinion but still you shouldn't be causing the same fires that a moderator is meant to put out. I mean in no way to offend you by saying this, everyone was acting pretty lame, but for you to do it too and being a moderator is a little different.

EDIT: But hey good job on putting this down again. Gotta give you that.

 

[koda6966]

I agree with ckblum.

and Johnny, i wasn't trying to start down the whole "omg its unsafe blah blah your dumb" road again. I was referring to how you flipped out just because he misspelled your name, you act worse than a 16 year old kid would on here.

--EDIT--
Woopsie. I musta mixed up threads.
I guess its hard to remember all the ones you mods acted like that on.
But really, stop messing up peoples plans and dreams by being such a downer.

 

[DustyMojave]

I'm dredging up this ancient thread because I was looking for some inspirational pictures of offroad/pre-runner Ford Explorers for a young man who is currently living in my house and just bought an inexpensive 91 Explorer. In looking for such pictures, I found this one of a Ranger

and clicked on it and was re-directed to this thread. The title looked interesting, so I read it all. And decided... To Heck with it, I'm gonna bring it back!

Tsk Tsk Tsk...

I think the young man (not so terribly young anymore) who was the OP and started all the fuss actually had a good idea that is not nearly as far-fetched or even needs to be as radical in engineering as the group seemed to think. Apparently none of the folks who posted on this thread (and some of them are still around on here) were ever aware that there was a professional road race series for production small pickup trucks. Not tube-framed fiberglass bodied NASTrucks, but basically stock mini trucks with mostly stock production 4 cylinder engines, basically stock suspensions and bodywork. And they went pretty quick.

Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnSYj1hAPs0

All the brands were represented. It ran from the mid-80s to the early 90s. In the end, the faster trucks were...

I bet you guess wrong...


Ford Ranger (with twin i-beam front suspension), Nissan (with basically the same front suspension that early Mustangs used) and Jeep Comanche (with straight tube front axle). For those who think they know about road racing, those will shock the snot out of you.

A little about me so you reading this won't think I'm just another blowing smoke out of his Burro.:
I grew up around SCCA road racing and hot rods and other motorsports. Then in the early 70s switched to the more 3-dimensional offroad racing. Since then I've won a championship with my own buggy in offroad desert racing, won in motorcycle desert racing, made a career of building and prepping offroad race cars and trucks that have won championships and their class in the Baja 1000 and stadium short course races; and worked on road racers from Mustangs to Alfas to a tube frame Corvette to Mustangs, Porsches and Javelins as well, including on a team that won the Trans Am championship that year, and street rods, and dry lakes racers, and restored vintage road racers and sprint cars and midgets, fabricated Super Modifieds and Jeep Speeds and Baja Bugs. I've owned Rangers and Explorers and currently have a Toyota pre-runner with FabTech IvanDan front with Fox coilovers and Hanneman glass all around. I have my 1st car still which is a 58 Bug with over 800,000 miles on it, over half of those as a Baja Bug. So I've been around and know a few things.

A few notes about the OP's idea come to mind real quickly, such as the fact that many of those road race cars I've worked on have had parallel leaf spring live axles and have been very effective. So does a Ranger pickup. Also, long travel suspension does not need to mean a high ride height. Short course offroad race trucks ride rather low to the ground, yet have lots of travel to handle big jumps. Meanwhile, they also handle quite well around corners.

I suggest starting out basic with simple mods to a production pickup, then working one's way through to more exotic 4-link rear suspension kits and such like that. With that in mind, I suggest starting out with 2 wheel drive, to keep things relatively simple, then go for 4wd as well.

The concept could even be extended to turbo diesel trucks as well, if you think about it with an open mind. I was on the crew of the only diesel to ever win the mini truck class in the Baja 1000. It was the Factory-backed Isuzu P'Up diesel of Mike Leon and Javier Tiznado (owners of Mike's Sky Rancho in the mountains of Baja) in 1986.

Attention would need to be paid to vehicle cornering...Low CG, Light weight, roll center, sway bars, instant centers, spring rates, camber change, body roll, etc.


Look what's being done in the world of pro-touring.

I feel the concept still has merit. And I hope the OP reads this post.

 

[Starkman]

Google serches are interesting, found this thread,

I am building a Ranger for rally type driving. I also do ice racing in the winter. He is my start, it's a 98 4x4 3.0L auto now but I'm going to do a V8 swap. I will use a Explorer for a donor and start out with a all wheel drive transfer case, I have a Explorer now with the F150 transfer case swap but I just want to see if the all wheel will work. And it's easiest to get it up and running.

Here is the truck with the 2" rear blocks removed and torsion bars unwound 3 turns that netted a 1" drop in the front. 31/10.50-15 tires on now and I have some 33s to try. I have a set of 3" wider prerunner front fenders to install and will do a bed stretch in the rear.

 

[SoCalltd]

Personally I don't feel like its a terrible idea. Since the beginning of this thread look was had come to the world of off-road racing. There are many examples that come close to what he's looking for ie: loors, torxs, stadium super trucks, but I feel the one that really hits home for him would be anything coming out of Dakar especially Robby Gordon's Dakar vehicle. Granted those are all high dollar custom built vehicles but the concept is there. it would be neat to see this take off again.

 

[Bjorn Toulouse]

I'm done with off road, but I could go for a Ranger set up like Ken Block's Mustang!

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Rex