want to own an SCCA Comanche?

[mpace6a]

Man. I'd love to get that.

 

If it was driveable/reliable I'd half consider changing my plane ticket home to a ticket to Texas and driving that thing all the way back to Canada :nuts:

 

I am already heading to Texas soon here. I have enough cash on hand to buy it too.

 

I shouldn't though.

:huh???:

I disagree! You should! :D

[Alexia]

Man. I'd love to get that.

 

If it was driveable/reliable I'd half consider changing my plane ticket home to a ticket to Texas and driving that thing all the way back to Canada :nuts:

 

I am already heading to Texas soon here. I have enough cash on hand to buy it too.

 

I shouldn't though.

:huh???:

I disagree! You should! :D

 

$2,500 is 83.3% of the cost for the supercharging I am buying. :P

[Comanche County]

Too bad I just moved to GA and brought my 20' trailer with me or I'd snag it. Abilene was only 70 miles from me back home, I checked the Abilene CL daily for over a year, as well as Fleabay and never saw this advertised before. Honestly, I don't think he'll get 2,500 for it. Abilene just isn't a good market for Jeeps, will most likely end up bubbafied and pulling deer lease duties till it dies. Maybe I ought to message him, I'm planning on going back home in a few weeks.

[whowey]

I can fully imagine either Pete or especially Automan, selling their souls to the devil to try to get this thing, or in Automans case, substitute "soul" for "Diesel MJ"!

 

 

After the last week with the diesel.. that may not be completely out of his mind.

 

At this point... I wouldn't be surprised to be getting a phone call about my trailer in the next few days.

[Automan2164]

I can fully imagine either Pete or especially Automan, selling their souls to the devil to try to get this thing, or in Automans case, substitute "soul" for "Diesel MJ"!

 

 

After the last week with the diesel.. that may not be completely out of his mind.

 

At this point... I wouldn't be surprised to be getting a phone call about my trailer in the next few days.

 

I am balls deep in that diesel now, so it's not going anywhere. As much as I would love to have this truck, It's just not in the cards right now. My room mate is sort of thinking about it. He likes racing, and my MJ disease is hard to not catch where you are under the same roof. I called the seller on his behalf today to ask some questions.

 

The current owner is a heritage racing enthusiast. He found this truck about 7 years ago in a Junkyard by him. He remembered seeing this truck in the late '80's and early '90's racing, and couldn't let it go out like that. He picked it up, and it has pretty much sat as-is ever since. The radiator was out, the timing cover was off, and that's all he knows. Supposedly it still wears the stock suspension, most of the rollbar/cage is still there, and the original seats went back in in place of the racing seats. It still wears battle scars from racing, most notably he said there is a dent in the roof from when they were racing it up Pike's Peak and there was a wreck in front of the truck, and a big chunk of the wreck came flying into the cab. He estimated the truck had to be doing well over 100 MPH at the time. He said it wouldn't be out of the realm to have started life as an Archer brothers truck, they've asked about buying it from him before - as I understand it. It was raced last by Sterling Volkswagen in Abilene, TX, and that's where he knows the most from. The son of the dealer would drive it on the street when they were not racing, so that could explain the lights being in place and the plates on it. He's been in contact with them, and they still have a bunch of parts from the truck, including a spare race engine still in the crate. It has a clean TX title, which he thinks is still in the Volks dealers name.

 

The current owner said that he wouldn't have a problem with holding it if he had payment in full if someone needed time to arrange pick up.

 

I have left a message with the Volks dealer, and will call again tomorrow when they are open.

 

Rob

[neohic]

He's been in contact with them, and they still have a bunch of parts from the truck, including a spare race engine still in the crate.

 

Weren't the engines just stock 2.5s? I thought that towards the end of the reign of Comanche awesomeness in racing that the engines were still stock but were assembled by the team out of hand picked factory components. :dunno:

 

Not to cut this one down or anything, but I'd totally rather have the '88 Dave Diedrick truck.

 

:drool: For reals! What happened to all these trucks?!

 

The current owner said that he wouldn't have a problem with holding it if he had payment in full if someone needed time to arrange pick up.

 

Any chance that passing along some contact information to the new owner would be possible? I'd really love to see some better pictures of this truck. It'd be interesting to see what kind of suspension components are under it!... drop axle in front?... fiberglass leafs in the rear?... I need to know!

[SW86]

man i like that one. where are you finding all these pics? i found these on a quick search

 

 

 

 

 

 

id like to see a color of that last pic. not that i know anything about it but its supposedly Rick Stevens

[Automan2164]

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-12/ ... _stock-car

 

Motor Racing : Truck Racing Makes Debut in Southland

May 12, 1988|Shav Glick

 

Race trucks, motor racing's newest competitive vehicles, will make their Southern California debut this weekend at Riverside International Raceway as part of a six-event racing package staged by the Sports Car Club of America

 

Although many of the competitors and most of the manufacturers are based in Southern California, the fast-growing SCCA series never came closer than Sears Point Raceway, north of San Francisco, in its first two seasons.

 

"Race trucks are like NASCAR sedans were in their early days, when the public related directly to the models on the race track," said Spencer Low of Arcadia, owner of last year's winning Nissan. "Pickups are the major item in the United States car market, and the owners seem to identify the same way with the race trucks as the stock car fans did. This has rubbed off on the manufacturers, who are giving full support to most teams."

 

Five makes are among the top seven leaders after two races.

 

Bobby Archer, who won in a Jeep Comanche two weeks ago in Dallas, is tied at 31 points with Mike Rutherford, who drives a Mitsubishi Mighty Max. Rutherford won the series opener at Sears Point.

 

Next comes John Norris of Culver City, in another Mitsubishi, with 28 points, followed by Steve Saleen of Brea, in a Ford Ranger, 21; Tommy Archer, Bobby's brother, in a Jeep, and Ray Kong of San Jose, who switched in midseason from Mitsubishi to one of Low's Nissans, 20 each; and Scott Sharp in a Dodge Ram 50, with 17.

 

The series is open to all 1987 and 1988 mini-trucks with standard cabs, short wheelbases, 4-cylinder engines, 5-speed transmissions and 2-wheel drive.

 

Max Jones, the 1987 champion from Long Beach, is running with Tom Kendall in a Chevy Beretta in an International Motor Sports Assn. series and is not defending his championship. Low replaced him with Jeff Krosnoff of Flintridge-La Canada.

 

The Archers finished second and third behind Jones last year and by so doing won the manufacturers' championship for Jeep.

 

"We want both the championships this year," Bobby Archer said. "Teamwork is what is going to win and the Archer brothers know more about teamwork than anyone else in the series."

 

The Coors Racetruck Challenge will be 20 laps on Riverside's 2.5-mile course on Sunday.

 

Five other events will also be held. Practice and qualifying Saturday will be followed by an American City Racing League Sports 2,000 race of 25 laps (100 kilometers). On Sunday, preceding the race trucks, there will be 15-lap main events for Sports Renault and NASPORT cars and 25-lappers for the Russell Pro Series and the Western Formula Atlantic series.

 

Race trucks have added a new dimension to the art of racing--bump drafting.

 

That is not to be confused with stock car drafting, where a trailing car can pick up a draft and slingshot past the leading car.

 

Bump drafting is coming up behind another truck and whamming it in the rear--deliberately. Such an act could be cause for disqualification in some forms of racing, but in race trucks, the guy doing the bumping is more often than not the teammate of the guy getting bumped.

 

Low explains the technique:

 

"It all started accidentally last year in Portland, which has a long straightaway and a tight chicane where you try to keep as close as possible to the truck ahead of you. The racing is so tight that guys got bumped now and then.

 

"When we started checking lap times, we couldn't figure out why one was quicker than the others until someone said, 'Hey, that was the lap where I got bumped,' so we went out and tried a few laps and found that both trucks in a bumping situation had lap times between a second and a second and a half faster than when running alone.

 

"At first, the officials frowned on it, but we convinced them that it was for our benefit. Now it's getting really wild. It's kind of like dancing, you've got to both be in the right rhythm for it to work. If you're not in rhythm, you can end up knocking your teammate sideways.

 

"The hits are real. We use radios to alert the front driver when to expect it, or sometimes during a race we'll wave the guy behind to make a hit. Sometimes it's not a teammate, but it's some guy who wants to hook up and help catch the leader.

 

"You've got to close within about 20 feet of the truck in front of you before you can begin to work together," Low continued. "As soon as you begin to feel the effect of the draft, the guy in the trailing truck stands on the throttle and goes full blast into the rear of the truck ahead. The harder the hit, the faster you both go. At Brainerd (Minn.) last year, the fastest lap without bumping as 118 m.p.h. With bumping, it was 123."

 

Teams and drivers have had to make some concessions to the bumping, however. Drivers have beefed up their neck braces to guard against whiplash. And more bumpers had to be ordered.

 

So is anyone else genuinely interested in this truck?

 

Rob

[ComancheKid45]

I really hope someone with a connection to us on this forum can pick this thing up. this is just as historic as the Thundercheif IMO :popcorn: and it would be devastating to see this thing end up in the hands of the wrong person or scrapped :cry:

 

 

Id love to have it, but its just too far and not in my budget :(

[Automan2164]

Only reason I ask is that my roommate is seriously considering dropping a bid.

 

Rob

[Pete M]

I say go for it. :D

[SW86]

id send an offer before bidding 2500 but i also say go for it. if your roomie ends up not wanting it after time/work, at least we know who itll go to after him :yes:

[whowey]

Only reason I ask is that my roommate is seriously considering dropping a bid.

 

Rob

 

There is always room on this forum for one more....

[Pete M]

I would definitely make an offer first.

[neohic]

I have left a message with the Volks dealer, and will call again tomorrow when they are open.

 

Find out anything cool?

[Automan2164]

Oh yeah... Details to come... I have a few things to catch up on here, and I'll write a lil' somethin' up.

 

Rob

[Automan2164]

I had a chance to talk to Sterling Robinson today, who was the last one to professionally race the truck:

 

 

 

 

Sterling bought it in the late '80's from the Archer brothers themselves. He couldn't recall the number, but he did say that it was the "Extra" truck that they would lend out to their buddies. You may ask what an SCCA race truck runs back in the day? A cool $23,000. He had a blast. He said that it was tough to keep up with the Archer brothers, and the Saleen Fords. Saleen's because they just had so much money poured into them, and the Archers because they always were bending the rules and finding loopholes. Part of that was that he was also a private racer, competing with all these big guys. He said the truck came to him with an alright motor, but he had sent it out, and it came back faster than stink. It's been all over the country at all the big races, although he talked about missing out on Laguna Seca because of a wreck in Detroit. He laughed and mentioned that it was tough to keep up unless you got into a pack on the straightway, and slammed into each other. (Just like the article!). I told him I had read that, and he confirmed it with saying that it was no joke when you were third in a line of 4, and they were all slamming together to get the speed up. 'Metal on metal'. After a couple years, the money was just to expensive to stay competitive. He retired the truck. When his son needed a driver, he told him that it was either buy a new car, or he could drive the truck if they pulled the race motor. Tough choice. His son ended up changing the race motor, took out the fuel cell, and part of the interior roll cage. Left the racing seats, the suspension, and all the other goodies in it. That was in '97. I didn't get as far as asking what happened afterwards, as I had to get back to work, but I plan on sending him an email.

 

He did say that he has the race motor they took out, bumpers, fiberglass leafs for the back, a front axle set up for the ovals, radiator, and a bunch of other parts that they have been sitting on that he would sell for $1500.

 

Rob

[neohic]

... bumpers, fiberglass leafs for the back, a front axle set up for the ovals, ...

 

Did he say if it was an all or nothing type of deal?

[Automan2164]

... bumpers, fiberglass leafs for the back, a front axle set up for the ovals, ...

 

Did he say if it was an all or nothing type of deal?

 

Not specifically, but I am thinking so.

 

Rob

[dasbulliwagen]

:drool: :popcorn:

[shawn]

' nice bit of history that you have collected there , rob. :bowdown:

[500 MJ]

2 days left, this thing could still be anyone's in the end. Part of me hates ebay for this, I imagine it will be one of those last second 30 people bid type deals.

 

I only hope the new owner finds the site, I really would like to see many more pictures of it.

[Automan2164]

2 days left, this thing could still be anyone's in the end. Part of me hates ebay for this, I imagine it will be one of those last second 30 people bid type deals.

 

I only hope the new owner finds the site, I really would like to see many more pictures of it.

 

I have spoken with the seller and previous owner... More details to come out... But I need to tie up all the loose ends. Ben (Nehoic) and I have been all over the map on this thing and are collaborating stories and digging for facts. When we get the full story down, we'll let you guys know.

 

If you haven't noticed, there is now a reserve on the truck.

Rob

[Pete M]

If you haven't noticed, there is now a reserve on the truck.

Rob

 

 

:fs2:

[jimoshel]

2 days left, this thing could still be anyone's in the end. Part of me hates ebay for this, I imagine it will be one of those last second 30 people bid type deals.

 

I only hope the new owner finds the site, I really would like to see many more pictures of it.

 

I have spoken with the seller and previous owner... More details to come out... But I need to tie up all the loose ends. Ben (Nehoic) and I have been all over the map on this thing and are collaborating stories and digging for facts. When we get the full story down, we'll let you guys know.

 

If you haven't noticed, there is now a reserve on the truck.

Rob

I thought there was a reserve on it the other day when I checked it out.I'm tired of the suspense. Think I'll put a bid on it just to get the ball roillin'.