What's new
By:
Filters

Should I switch directions and retire/sell the Manche and build JK for 4500 Ultra4 Class?

Serious question, besides wanting to jump up a class, whats to prevent your from running the JK in stock class?

Seat time, on the trails at KOH, knowing how its gonna react. Thats gotta be worth something. Perhaps get a solid podium finish.

Selling the Comanche as is would get you a LOT closer in that class
 
I appreciate everyone's input! A lot of great thoughts to consider. I am not interested in racing 4600 because I don't like going as slow as we have to (if we're not a portal bronco) to keep the truck/jeep together. I like going fast (like in the UTVs other then the blown motors). If I sell the Comanche it'll allow me to afford building the JK to be a better 4500 than the Comanche could be. Seating position is better, visibility is better, aftermarket is way better, etc etc. Somebody mentioned a race chassis, I may eventually talk to Randy Rodd and see if he'll build me a 4700 spec JK chassis that is 4500 legal but that'd be down the road. For now I want something that will have good street characteristics but still be decently fast/competitive. I think it's doable.
 
tribal4krawler said:
I appreciate everyone's input! A lot of great thoughts to consider. I am not interested in racing 4600 because I don't like going as slow as we have to (if we're not a portal bronco) to keep the truck/jeep together. I like going fast (like in the UTVs other then the blown motors). If I sell the Comanche it'll allow me to afford building the JK to be a better 4500 than the Comanche could be. Seating position is better, visibility is better, aftermarket is way better, etc etc. Somebody mentioned a race chassis, I may eventually talk to Randy Rodd and see if he'll build me a 4700 spec JK chassis that is 4500 legal but that'd be down the road. For now I want something that will have good street characteristics but still be decently fast/competitive. I think it's doable.
Click to expand...

Good luck
 
tribal4krawler said:
I appreciate everyone's input! A lot of great thoughts to consider. I am not interested in racing 4600 because I don't like going as slow as we have to (if we're not a portal bronco) to keep the truck/jeep together. I like going fast (like in the UTVs other then the blown motors). If I sell the Comanche it'll allow me to afford building the JK to be a better 4500 than the Comanche could be. Seating position is better, visibility is better, aftermarket is way better, etc etc. Somebody mentioned a race chassis, I may eventually talk to Randy Rodd and see if he'll build me a 4700 spec JK chassis that is 4500 legal but that'd be down the road. For now I want something that will have good street characteristics but still be decently fast/competitive. I think it's doable.
Click to expand...

I agree, no leaf spring rig is going to keep up with those broncos on portals.

4600 is pretty ghey now because of that.
 
To be honest, I think the 4600 class is still a very fun and competitive class. After 2023 I'll be surprised if more than 2 or 3 broncos are racing more than a race or two and they won't have the budgets Vaughn or Lovell have. It'll even out again for sure. I don't see the 3 guys doing it now continuing past their contract in 4600.
 
I cut one coil bucket out, but it'd be easily welded back in and rewelded to the engine cage. Other than that, a motor, aw4 and some shocks and it'd be back racing.
 
Seems like having an interior to swap in and out, such as different seats and a carpet kit as well as building a quiet exhaust system or something with cutouts for racing would go a long way to making it more street.

Might be worth it to have a stick setup for race and then swap with a cheaper setup for street use the rest of the year.

How often will those get swapped around, whose to say, but those seem to be the biggest 3 obstacles to driving a racecar on the road
 
I have driven drag cars for many years as "street cars" so hot, junglegym cage, loud, etc doesn't bother me at all. My other daily driver is a 800+ HP CTS-V. The JK is already caged with Corbeau hardshell seats with no carpet inside, the only difference really is that it'd have door bars that i'd have to climb over, and i've already mulled over some ways to make the door bars be removeable for street use as crawling over door bars on a lifted jeep is a lot different than door bars on a lowered drag car. Another thing I should mention is that my goal is not to build a dedicated Ultra4 car that I'm going to campaign for a full season. I want basically a Hammers race car, and then maybe enter it in Hammertruck in some cool desert races, but 98% of the year it'd be occasional daily, weekend warrior, car show, whatever. I don't want to be afraid or reluctant to use it for anything.
 
It is hard to have a race car that is good on the street and trail riding and competitive. I ended up building a street friendly trail rig too.
 
tribal4krawler said:
I have driven drag cars for many years as "street cars" so hot, junglegym cage, loud, etc doesn't bother me at all. My other daily driver is a 800+ HP CTS-V. The JK is already caged with Corbeau hardshell seats with no carpet inside, the only difference really is that it'd have door bars that i'd have to climb over, and i've already mulled over some ways to make the door bars be removeable for street use as crawling over door bars on a lifted jeep is a lot different than door bars on a lowered drag car. Another thing I should mention is that my goal is not to build a dedicated Ultra4 car that I'm going to campaign for a full season. I want basically a Hammers race car, and then maybe enter it in Hammertruck in some cool desert races, but 98% of the year it'd be occasional daily, weekend warrior, car show, whatever. I don't want to be afraid or reluctant to use it for anything.
Click to expand...
Two words: street legal?
 
tribal4krawler said:
I have driven drag cars for many years as "street cars" so hot, junglegym cage, loud, etc doesn't bother me at all. My other daily driver is a 800+ HP CTS-V. The JK is already caged with Corbeau hardshell seats with no carpet inside, the only difference really is that it'd have door bars that i'd have to climb over, and i've already mulled over some ways to make the door bars be removeable for street use as crawling over door bars on a lifted jeep is a lot different than door bars on a lowered drag car. Another thing I should mention is that my goal is not to build a dedicated Ultra4 car that I'm going to campaign for a full season. I want basically a Hammers race car, and then maybe enter it in Hammertruck in some cool desert races, but 98% of the year it'd be occasional daily, weekend warrior, car show, whatever. I don't want to be afraid or reluctant to use it for anything.
Click to expand...
Sounds like Handsome Jay’s 4500 Mall Crawler Jeep. Always liked that it seemed to do both race and street pretty well.
 
So after mulling it over for a week, basically what i came up with was if I did the JK 4500, I'd want to backhalf it. This is exactly what stopped me from moving forward with the Comanche. So, i think what i need to do is just commit and find somebody that's willing to help me backhalf the truck and just get it over with. Once it's actually backhalfed i think that will give me the momentum I need to go forward. Pulled the Manche out of the back of the garage today, did a lil bit of reorganizing and stuffed it back in the front of the garage where it'll be easily accessible.
324222985_5990162127708537_6778743890130972011_n.jpg
 
tribal4krawler said:
So after mulling it over for a week, basically what i came up with was if I did the JK 4500, I'd want to backhalf it. This is exactly what stopped me from moving forward with the Comanche. So, i think what i need to do is just commit and find somebody that's willing to help me backhalf the truck and just get it over with. Once it's actually backhalfed i think that will give me the momentum I need to go forward. Pulled the Manche out of the back of the garage today, did a lil bit of reorganizing and stuffed it back in the front of the garage where it'll be easily accessible.
324222985_5990162127708537_6778743890130972011_n.jpg
Click to expand...
Easy access = greater motivation (in theory anyway).
 
Nope. 😂😂 This year has been mayhem at work and the kiddos have been super busy with extracurriculars. I just today pulled the blown motor out of my Turbo S that has been sitting since I blew it up at Disney Nationals last year. 😂 looks like a combination of #alltheboost and old fatigued rod bolts caused this failure.
70890334047__7E9FE9D4-2B3F-40BC-95E4-85C08EC95227.jpeg


I do have some new developments in the works, with the biggest being my buddy Ken recently purchased a TMR 4400 car. I’ve signed on as the primary co-driver and secondary driver with this car so I’m pretty excited about the chance to move up into a big car. Our first race will be Race to Midnight with TDRA which should be a good shakedown and then we’ll head to Disney for the Ultra4 Dam race. I’m not 100% sure if we’ll take a swing at KOH 24 in this car, but I’ll definitely be there and codriving for Ruslan again if nothing else.
IMG_1188.jpeg



Im honestly seriously considering buying another 4.0 and aw4 and fixing some of the uptravel issues the manche had and then selling it as a RTR 4600 truck along with most of my other vehicles to purchase a built and ready to race 45/4800. I’d still love to see the 4500 Manche come to fruition but the reality is that work is coming back up to 100% balls to the walls and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. So major fab projects like that are unfortunately probably out of reach for me for the foreseeable future until Covid 2.0.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh