Crash Course Dirt Sports Spends a Day at the Fab School Learning a Few Fabrication Basics May 1, 2008 By: Scott Rousseau

We've all heard this old axiom at least once: Anyone can get in and drive. And while that may be true in some motorsports disciplines, it's also true that merely competing is one thing, winning is quite another.

LS Power Part II Apr 1, 2008 By: Scott Rousseau

Last month we showed you some of the basic hardware that goes into one of Beck Racing Engines' Chevrolet LS-based 418 Sand Kill motors. With over 20 years of know-how centered around high-performance Chevrolet racing engines, Frank Beck's research and development on the GM Gen III/IV small blocks has spawned about two-dozen built-to-order turnkey-engine packages for the LS, providing potential customers with a wide range of choices, available anywhere from 600-800 horsepower. Beck's catalog of combos can be easily honed to meet the individual performance needs of anything from a Class 1 buggy to the highway-haulin' tow rig that shuttles it.

LS Power Part 1 How Beck Racing Engines Builds Next-Generation Performance Mar 1, 2008 By: Scott Rousseau

Looking at Beck Racing Engines' shop from the outside, you'd never have a clue of what goes on inside. Located in a small industrial area in Phoenix, Arizona, the adobe-brick-faced BRE building is rather nondescript, the kind of place you might visit to drop off a utility bill or pick up dry cleaning.

Wiring Solutions that Work Defeat the Gremlins With Smitty's Wiring Tricks Mar 1, 2008 By: Scott Rousseau

A fully rigged off-road racer streaking through the desert at night is a sight to behold. Splitting the inky blackness like a bolt of lightning, thanks to as many as a dozen luminous orbs throwing out enough candlepower to light up Cleveland, the men and women who do battle in the wars of the Off-Road Nation must have total faith in their lighting and electrical systems. And those systems must execute their duties without fail. One poorly executed ground, one broken wire or overloaded breaker, and out go the lights. That's why today's off-road racers go to great lengths and expense to build redundant electrical systems that can meet the demands of the modern-day (and night) off-road battlefield. For a Trophy-Truck, that can mean investing as much as $11,000 in wiring alone.

If there's an item on your vehicle that needs to be right for the application, then it's your wheels. The correct set can literally be the difference between making it to the finish line or not. In the past few years, manufacturers have made great strides in producing wheels that have the strength to take on massive amounts of punishment, and look good while doing it.

Most people in the Off-Road Nation realize the benefits of beadlocks. When a beadlocking ring is applied to a wheel, it clamps the tire tightly in place, making it possible to run low tire pressures or even run the tire flat without the tire coming loose from the rim. The tire can take hard impacts as well, without burping air or loosing a bead. These are all traits that are highly sought after by rock crawlers and desert enthusiasts alike.

In the old days, men were men and wheels were made of steel. While wheels made of steel are still rolling around the Off-Road Nation, the majority are now made from aluminum. The reasons are varied, but the constant is that aluminum is lighter than steel, every bit as strong and can be manipulated in many ways. Since the manufacturing process can utilize aluminum in both its solid and molten state, there are several ways a wheel can be produced. As with anything, some processes are better than others, but when it comes to desert racing or rock crawling, aluminum wheels are a better option than steel.

They say, 'tis better to give than receive, but you have to know what the best presents are for that to hold true. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of a lame gift and another set of socks or ties just isn't going to cut it.

Proudly looking around the ultra-clean assembly room of his company's Indianapolis headquarters, the aura surrounding Andrew Heard's bespeckled face is all business. So is his distinctively British accent. A characteristic that, to us Yanks, instantly transforms even Heard's most elementary explanations into the upper atmosphere of motorsports' engineering speak. As this rare visit into Xtrac's recently opened American operation unwound, its world-class reputation oozed from every millimeter of the place.