Trophy Truck

A SCORE Trophy Truck competing in the Baja 1000

Trophy Trucks are the fastest class of off-road racing vehicles 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 power engines. They are intended for desert racing, and are not street legal. These vehicles are known as Trophy Trucks when raced in SCORE International sanctioned races, and Trick Trucks when raced in Best in the Desert sanctioned races.

Truck design

Gus Vildósola driving his Trophy Truck during the 2005 Baja 500

They are most often 2-wheel drive, they do have a class that is 4-wheel drive, and most feature a 4130 chromoly 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 700-850 hp. Suspension travel can exceed 30 inches (760 mm) 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.[1]

The roll cage is the bars you see running inside of the vehicle. The roll cage is made of different types of steel tubing: mild steel and drawn over mandrel (DOM). The roll bars use DOM because it's a lot harder, and the mild steel bends too easily.[2]

Cost

The typical cost of one of these trucks is $300,000–$500,000, this does not include; race entry fee, tool cost, parts cost, and fuel. It can cost up to $30,000 to run each race and a $10,000 purse if you win, there are 6 BITD races in USA and 5 SCORE races in USA and Mexico, along with several other regional events. Cameron Steele, a veteran in racing, spent $20,000 in gas for only a two day event. The biggest event in the SCORE series is the SCORE Baja 1000 in Mexico. In 2013, the winning time was 20:00:59 by B.J. Baldwin in his Chevrolet Silverado.

See also
Pro 2 demonstration
Ricky Johnson demonstrates a Pro 2 Trophy Truck — 555 kB, 7 sec
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References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trophy Trucks.
  1. ↑ Brenthel Industries brenthelindustries.com
  2. ↑ Greeves, Joe (May 2010). "A five-year project that's complete--but may never be finished!". 8 LUG HD TRUCK.