Race truck interior with multiple gauges and roll cage

Heal-World Bauer frame in accordance with Class 7100 requirements. In addition, the original factory suspension design and concept must remain. So not only does the rear suspension have to use leaf springs along with front coils and Twin~ Traction Beams, but the original mounts and pick- up points must The National Leaf packs hold the 40- spline Ford 9-inch and mount in the stock location. Check out remain as well. the King remote The teams can reservoir shocks and weld reinforce the torsion bar-style ment metal to sway bar. components such as spring hangers and locating arms, but they must start with a factory piece To this chassis, the team hung 57%- inch~long, l4leaf, 94 lb/in National Leaf packs to factory-reinforced mounts. Though wheel travel in the rear is unlimited, C&C runs between 14 and 18 inches to balance against the front, which is limited to 12 inches To damp the spring packs, it uses two 3-inch King tripleebypass shocks per corner. In its class, C&C is allowed to use any rear axle it chooses, so in went a custom full-floating, 6.20:1geared Crissman 40-Spline Ford 9-inch with a spool, Summers Brothers hubs, and 4-piston Sierra disc brakes. Though the body is from a 97 Ranger, Class 7100 allows Ranger sus- pension from any year. So the team took a stock Ranger Dana 28 Twin- Traction Beam frontend and reinforced the housing and radius arms to handle the offhighway abuse. Custom 12-inch travel coils (that are replaced after each race) spring the frontend with damping from one 3-inch King triple- bypass shock per corner. While some might wonder why the team didnt 46 JULY 2000 Flllt WHEELER choose the stronger Dana 35 setup used in later Rangers, Custer says the 4WD is actually used sparingly during the race, and that the added weight of that axle system would compromise performance. To the Dana 28 frontend, the team added Advance Machining Dynamics hubs and Sierra Racing 4piston disc brakes with stock spin dles and hub lockouts, Because the Dana 28 ring-andepinion is fairly weak, the team worked closely with the trans- fer case designers, Mogi and Borg-Warner, and came up with 4.10:1 gearing for the frontend. Though the front and rear axle ratios do not match, the stock Borg-Warner transfer case gearing has been modified to bias toward the front and spin the front drive shaft quicker, essentially compensating for the differing gear ratios. Engines are limited to three liters in Class 7100, with a choice of tour or six cylinders. C&C started with a stock 2.3L four-cylinder Ford motor and bored and stroked the block to dis place three liters, Weisco 95:1 pistons and rods are used along with a Crower crankshaft and modified Ford head. This results are a whopping 300hp, Stock radius arms have been beefed up and modified with rod ends at the frame side. Though it looks stock on the outside, the inside is strictly business with a full rollcage, a manual valvebody for the 1:4, and plenty of gauges to keep tabs on the fiery four-cylinder. Notice how the K&N filter draws from the cleaner air inside the cab. four-cylinder Screamer Power is chan~ neled down to the transfer case via a modified Ford C4 with a custom torque converter from the Converter Shop, We had a chance to pilot this power- ful machine over some fairly punishing desert terrain, and while this Ranger doesnt have the ultimate plushness of a Trophy Truck, it handles severely abusive whoops and jumps with ease We were amazed that a truck with so much stock suspension componentry could feel as smooth and as confident as this vehicle did. The C&C Motorsports team is still ironing out chassis details before it tackles the two big ZOOO-mile races on the schedule this year. And those races should be the ultimate durability tests for this machine. One of the many big- name Trophy Truck drivers is sure to take the Gold in those brutal desert races, but its the lower-buck teams such as C&C Motorsports and drivers like Joe Custer that will have the pride of knowing they finished in a real-world % racer. You can get racing updates and more information about C&C Motorsports through its Web site at J www.ccmotorsportsicom. "I