SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/485293
A LOOK BACK ON EARLY CLASS 8 TECHNOLOGY In the 1970's and 1980's, Ford, Chevy and Dodge pickup models where prominent early platforms to build Class 8 race trucks. Full factory stock single-cabs where gutted, built with complete roll cages, bucket seats, and just the bare essentials. Fiberglass hoods, bedsides and fenders would gradually replace factory sheet metal. Fuel cells replaced factory tanks, and disc brakes all around replaced brake drums. In general, the early Class 8 trucks were caged-out versions of street trucks. As teams saw opportunities to improve trucks with boxed frame rails, gusseted support structures, and more rigid construction techniques, the evolution of building Class 8 trucks began a process of THIS CLASS 8 PICKUP TRUCK FROM THE 1976 SCORE BAJA 1000, WAS DRIVEN BY MIKE BURKE, AND IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE THIS CLASS GETS ITS ROOTS. CENTERLINE IMAGES continual improvement that you can see in the "eight trucks" of today. They simply start with a street truck, most any model year with large production runs, and you make a desert racing truck out of it. It's still straight forward. If you ever get a chance to personally inspect the fabrication of an early Class 8 truck, you can see how practical and useful some of the best practices of the 70's and 80's were. One of the classic examples of the fabrication techniques and workmanship of the day can be seen in the early model Ford F-100 Class 8 trucks driven by racers like Frank "Scoop" Vessels or Mike Burke. These were no-nonsense, but effective examples of where the technology was in Class 8 in the early to mid 1970's. Before the days of laser cutting, MIG/TIG welding, and computer aided design (CAD), the method of the day was hand drawn plans and Arc welding. Yet the craftsmanship, and common sense, of design clearly paved the way for the high-quality that race car fabrication is today. Early suspension set ups started out stiff and stock. Leaf spring packs in the rear were damped by three, sometimes four, single heavy-duty shocks made by manufacturers such a Gabriel and Bilstein. Front suspensions where similar at three single shocks per wheel. On a Ford F-100 for example, a coil spring sitting in the coil tower was assisted by two single shocks on each side. The ride was harsh and unforgiving. It took a couple years before someone figured out how well bent I-beams worked. But even today, you'll see late model Class 8 trucks with custom made I-beams and tons of wheel travel. By the early to mid 1980's, extended wheel travel allowed for swifter race speeds and smoother rides. As suspension development improved, rear leaf spring packs became longer and softer, allowing long shock travel and longer wheel travel. Three and four-link rear suspensions were becoming widely used, as they are today, and rear trailing arms with long 077 SCORE JOURNAL