Trophy Truck
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Trophy Trucks are the largest and fastest class of off-road racing vehicles which are designed and built to resemble modern pickup trucks. Although any truck that meets the safety standards can race the trophy truck class, they, for the most part, feature long travel suspensions and high horsepower motors. They are intended for desert racing, and most are not street legal.
[edit] Uses
Trophy Trucks can reach speeds in excess of 135 miles per hour even over rough terrain. This puts them among the fastest off-road vehicles in the world. The trucks are most frequently associated with the Baja 1000 race, series that have featured trophy trucks including SCORE International, and Best In The Desert or BITD, in which they are referred to as "Trick Trucks". As there are other forms of off-road racing most trucks are called trophy trucks in general but they are not. Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) for example uses what is called a pro 2, pro 4, or pro lite and are smaller in wheel base with less suspension travel and less horsepower. CORR also races on a closed circuit track whereas Trophy Trucks are desert racers.
[edit] Truck design
They are most often 2-wheel drive, and most feature a 4130 chrome-moly tube-frame chassis covered by a fiberglass or other composite body. Engines are required to be naturally-aspirated, and are typically V8s generating in excess of 700 hp. They are also required to be of the same manufacturer as the body of the truck. Suspension travel can exceed 30 inches depending on chassis design. Most Trophy trucks use independent A-arm suspensions up front. In the rear, most trucks use a 3 or 4-link setup with a solid axle, while some use various types of independent suspension. Suspension and damping duties are handled by 1 or 2 shock absorbers per wheel; usually consisting of one coil-over and one by-pass shock.
More recently, trophy trucks have moved away from using a coilover and bypass shock, instead adopting a coilover with something called an internal bypass. This allows for the same amount of adjustment and eliminates one more thing that can break on the truck. These shocks are usually 3" in diameter and have a 14"-16" stroke.
In the Trophy-Truck offroad racing class, there are very few rules or regulations in regards to vehicle design; the limit to what can be done to the truck is largely based on the owner's budget. People are starting to get into building turbo diesel trucks. The first diesel will be finished by the middle of 2008.
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