Backstory:
My sister got this 1996 80 series as her first vehicle a few years ago, which she ended up rolling in April this year.
I have been planning/wanting to get into offroad racing for awhile, and started to get plans in motion this year to race King of the Hammers 2018. My plan is to race the Every Man Challenge (EMC) in the 4600 Stock Class, which essentially means the truck is limited to 35" tires, stock type suspension, "stock" drivetrain, and a bunch of other requirements but the gist is 35s and stock guts. Originally I planned on getting a cheap 3rd gen 4Runner, which I already have a Long Traveled one of so am super familiar with; that idea then evolved into getting a UTV to race, though a few days ago I went shopping around for a Can-Am X3 and the $23k price tag shocked me back to reality. From there I started shopping for cheap trucks again to do a "budget" race car. My dad and I had tentatively been planning to swap a second FJ40 we have onto the rolled FJ80 chassis, though yesterday my dad suggested I just use the FJ80 since the FJ40 build was gonna take awhile.
So that leads to yesterday; I already had powerpoints and spreadsheets from when I was planning to build a 4Runner, so with some modification I got an idea of what I needed to do to make the FJ80 race ready and got to work. King of the Hammers is the end of January, and I have one semester of college left, so essentially I have ~4 months to build a race legal truck, without the ability to work on it during the fall.
This build will be fast, cheap, and dirty. Since I have limited time, I have a list of priorities that need to be done and will work through them. Things like a roll cage and safety gear is #1, things like a 3 link are mid level, and things like bump stops are last. In the next few years I'll probably improve on everything, but as far as KOH 2018 is considered, I want a race legal truck and any additional mods I can squeeze in on time. My sister had named the truck "Drogo" after the Game of Thrones character, so without further ado, here is the revival, build, and hopefully racing of Drogo the 4600 truck!
My sister got this 1996 80 series as her first vehicle a few years ago, which she ended up rolling in April this year.
I have been planning/wanting to get into offroad racing for awhile, and started to get plans in motion this year to race King of the Hammers 2018. My plan is to race the Every Man Challenge (EMC) in the 4600 Stock Class, which essentially means the truck is limited to 35" tires, stock type suspension, "stock" drivetrain, and a bunch of other requirements but the gist is 35s and stock guts. Originally I planned on getting a cheap 3rd gen 4Runner, which I already have a Long Traveled one of so am super familiar with; that idea then evolved into getting a UTV to race, though a few days ago I went shopping around for a Can-Am X3 and the $23k price tag shocked me back to reality. From there I started shopping for cheap trucks again to do a "budget" race car. My dad and I had tentatively been planning to swap a second FJ40 we have onto the rolled FJ80 chassis, though yesterday my dad suggested I just use the FJ80 since the FJ40 build was gonna take awhile.
So that leads to yesterday; I already had powerpoints and spreadsheets from when I was planning to build a 4Runner, so with some modification I got an idea of what I needed to do to make the FJ80 race ready and got to work. King of the Hammers is the end of January, and I have one semester of college left, so essentially I have ~4 months to build a race legal truck, without the ability to work on it during the fall.
This build will be fast, cheap, and dirty. Since I have limited time, I have a list of priorities that need to be done and will work through them. Things like a roll cage and safety gear is #1, things like a 3 link are mid level, and things like bump stops are last. In the next few years I'll probably improve on everything, but as far as KOH 2018 is considered, I want a race legal truck and any additional mods I can squeeze in on time. My sister had named the truck "Drogo" after the Game of Thrones character, so without further ado, here is the revival, build, and hopefully racing of Drogo the 4600 truck!