That wasn't Jhonny, in 09 I think that was Kelon or maybe Andy. Much more aggressive in a Trophy Truck over a section he's raced over and and practiced on just the day before. It didn't help him a couple of years ago when he smacked a big rock in the wash ending his race in the 1st 3 miles. The bad ass sound comes from an 8 into 1 collector system.
Getting ready for the SST race at the Long Beach Grand Prix, it will be pretty much all metal ramps & asphalt.
Yeah, you're right; knew the clip was from Baja, but figured Campbell had a similar experience last year in Dakar as did whoever was in the navigator's seat. Don't think I could do it. I'd give a try, but not sure how long I could last.
Being a Co-dawg In off-road is not for everyone, most people get car sick an after 50 miles are blowing bubbles after 100 miles. Most drivers can't handle co-driving and admit to never being willing to do it. I sat in the right seat in a Class 1 car for most of 09 & 10. As far as I'm concerned you are so busy, you don't have time to get sick. Your job is to watch the gauges, call turns on the GPS (much like a rally navigator) and watch your mirrors. At the same time you need to feel, smell and hear what the race car is doing. The other thing is you have to completely give your life away to the driver. I have two good friends that have been Robbby's co-dawgs (Bob Bower & Gregg Till) both report that he actually is very smooth and it doesn't feel as wild as he looks.
I love this thread!!! I'lve been an RG fan for a long time It's Nascar's loss that he's not a regular there. He's a true Racer, gives no quarter, and takes no BS
Ned told a story at his welcome home about JC and his reports from riding with Robby. Mainly one about missing a turn during a battle for first and flying off a corner, then somehow ending up right back on the road right behind peterhansel after slight...diversion... Sounds like it took years off JC's life, but hearing the story was hilarious.
+1 (but don't tell c.vestal I said that) Hell, just getting passed by his orange hummer was a thrill.
I'm calling shotgun on the RG FanWagon! With a California shop, and the one in Charlotte, Robby could build a moon rocket if he wanted to. It'll be great to see him in the Dakar again, I wonder if anybody will pony up the cash to run his second Hummer, and not that I could afford it but what's the pricetag on that truck? Future in NASCAR? Dunno and can't guess. One dream would be to see his operation take on sportscar (endurance) racing, imagine how many French he could piss off by winning LeMans.
Asking price on the #2 Hummer is $1,000,000. Rental and entry to the Dakar is only $1.500,000. So you could rent it and do Dakar for 1.5 M Or just but it outright for 1 M and find your own way into the event or another race. Good luck, keep us posted on what your gonna do
While I agree attitude was probably more the culprit of the DQ, I doubt the line pressure at the scavenging orifice on the intake is 35psi and it's definitely insignificant flow. The way I understood it is that the vacuum of the intake was the bigger advantage to deflating the tires just a few seconds quicker. 10-20cfm from a tire deflation system when that engine is probably sucking hundreds of CFM would be insignificant for overall HP
Yeah that was fricken awesome! Miles of room to pass but still took time to show the slower car who's boss. What a stud!
Had to look that up--wow, learned something new. Like a motorcycle transmission, using dogs to shift to the next higher or lower gear. Clutchless shifts possible too.
Been around for a long time. In Offroad racing an Albins tranny is commonly linked through a torque converter and NOT through a clutch. You have to start the car in gear and the biggest drawback is you have to shut the car off for going into reverse (off-shift into reverse-start-move back-shut car off-shift into 1st-start car) If you try to shift into first with car running and car stopped it either wont go or it goes and blows the tranny. Likewise with reverse which is the weakest gear in the Albins. The huge advantage is that the torque converter provides a hydraulic damper between the motor and gearbox causing both to last much much longer. However, I digress because Robby uses a clutch. Reverse is still the weak link in an Albins. Drivers say that if you have to use reverse on the race course you already screwed up, so don't get excited and try to jam it into reverse and make things MUCH worse! Clutchless shifts are possible but you need to "blip" the throttle to take the pressure off of the dogs. BTW a tranny like that will set you back about $40K, Robby prolly has 4 or 5 of them in the support trucks. The really trick trannys are the ones VW used In their Dakar Race Touraegs made by Xtrac. Also sequential, but uses an pneumatic actuator to shift allowing paddle shifters. The system allows a shift in 1/300th of a second, you link it to the ignition system which cuts power for 1/25th of a second and the shift occurs in the middle of all of that lag time.
i saw a picture of the VW trans and it looked as if there were auxillary motors attached power steerring and other pumps. i'll have to look it up again. I saw in Racecar Engineering Mag 05-06
ISTR someone suggesting last year that all the spare wheels were plumbed in to the system to act as a reservoir.
