TORTUGA CRAWLING FORWARD!

3/20/10 - The Bronco is now street legal - she went through smog with out any problems, so now it is time to remove all the smog equip. and try to wake it up a bit. I am headed out to Prairie City (outside Sacramento, Ca) tomorrow to check out a local VORRA (Valley Off Road Racing Assoc.) race which has similar racing classes to SCORE and BITD. They run 3 desert races in NV every year - this might be the perfect place to "Shake Down" the ol' girl. I had to have the 6 wheels custom made to get the correct offset and look forward to them showing up on Monday. Then I only need to find the fuel cell and install it before getting the roll cage under way. Then I could technically race the "Stock Full Class," in any of the above series. However I do plan to go through some of the drive train and beef some things up before getting too serious about racing it. Anyway - here is a few pics, she looks a little better now that it is all one color and all the trim holes are filled.

SUSPENSION INSTALL PICS...

2-21 UPDATE - LONG OVERDUE...

I have not checked in here in awhile but I have been busy working on the Ol Bronco. Suspension is moving along nicely - Special THANKS!!! to my friend Mike Sullivan and his wife Kathy for giving an entire weekend to me with full use of his shop and tools. The install would have been a nightmare without his gracious assistance - I owe this guy big! The new Deaver springs really soak up the bumps and the Corbeau suspension seats are great as well. She has been running a little rough since day one - funny how running on 7 cylinders will do that. This was cured with new plugs and wires today, man that really woke her up. Body work is on going - weather permitting because it will no longer fit in the garage. If I stop now, I could throw on a "I LOVE ANIMALS - THERE DELICIOUS," bumper sticker and fly the rebel flag off a 12ft CB antenna and move to Texas, but I think we will continue forward.

Final Logos are in!!!

This is it!!...the final logo design.

Working Logo Part 2

Here are the updated working logos. Going to be very cool when complete. Stay tuned for the final logo designs.
T-shirts and hats soon!!

Project underway...

Well,I found her on Craislist on New Years Eve. While I was checking her out 3 people called about her but I quickly decided our courtship would begin, after a quick trip to a Walmart ATM. Filled the tires, gas tank checked the fluids and drove 90+ miles home without any problems. Except for a severe exhaust leak which probably cooked a few much needed brain cells. The donor has a strong 400ci (6.6 liter), C6 auto trans and is basically stock. I have been looking high and low for the right truck. One that was not too nice yet structurally sound and in running condition.

Numerous warn out parts and trim pieces have already made it to the land fill. The good folks at Zoom Automotive near the dojo are installing the Flowmaster exhaust and swaping all the vital fluids to get her road worthy for now. I have purchased New 35in BFG KM2's that will be installed next week. The BFG people give free pit support to compeditors using their tires and contribute funds to the Blue Ribbon Coallition which helps keep trails open all over the country. So, the KM2 seemed like an obvious choice. I have also submitted a sponsorship request, hopefully will get some good news - a little help couldn't hurt. I am ordering a number of suspnsion parts this week which will nearly complete the 4in lift we will run for now. Currently searching for seats, 5pt harnesses and a 32-35gal fuel cell. Then it will be roll cage time along with rewiring a number of items and adding numerous lights... The motor, trans and transfer case will all have to be dug into at some level to get a feel for what they may need in the future but for now she does not have any leaks except for a minor one at the transfer case. The nice thing about the "Sportsman & Stock Full," class is that drive train modifications are extremely limited. I also spoke with the SCORE technical team and found them to be amazingly helpful at clarifying the Class descriptions to me. I was supprised they even answered the phone? I figure the only person still reading my ramblings is my mother (Hi Mom). Sorry for the spelling/grammar mistakes (no spell check on this thing) - guess that is what you get from a State College. - J

Gettin our Blog on!

First I have to admit that I really did not know what a blog is about until last night when Priscilla brought that Julia Childs movie home. Initially I was very disappointed in the selection and rapidly became interested, primarily in the blog part, but it was actually better than it had to be(and no I am not gay).

For my friends who see this and do not know who Jon Balinkie is, he is a long time High School buddy that has a Photography Studio in Phoenix - camerawerks.net (for the curious). I told him about my desire to do this several years back and recently he has re-sparked the interest. He plans to document our progress and eventually have a camera running in the truck. First, in a few races stateside then in the Baja 1000, hopefully in 2011. This gives me about a year to get the truck together.

We are barely getting started and further/extensive research is in full swing. We have been working on shirt, hat and sticker designs. Jon has a friend in the P.H.X. that is going to help us tighten up the image, once he gets the Fiesta Bowl flyer far enough along. We want to have something to sell that is very cool that you might actually want to wear - to help fund the operation. It is crazy how many people have come out of the woodwork and offered assistance with different facets of the Tortuga.

I have decided to run a 78-79 Ford Bronco and am currently scouring the country to locate the right rig to run in the SCORE Racing - Stock Full Class which allows limited modification to the vehicle. Ironically, during my research I discovered a multi-time Class 3 winner, Moss Brothers Racing, from Sacramento running the same vintage Bronco platform (check out the pic - they rock!). I do not even know if anyone will even read my pipe dream ramblings about this, however if we can pull it all together with a little help form craigslist, ebay and a few friends like you maybe sometime we will be sitting at the lake laughing about the overpriced Ford planer box we left in Mexico only to get a few snapshots of some cacti on our walk home? I am OK with that and look forward to any comments or suggestions anyone that is still reading this might have to offer up.

Ciao from the S.C. (Sutter Creek) for now - Jason