This 1966 Empress S was stripped from it’s base form, and modified extensively. The ShO8 gained DCOE carbs, an increased power output, and more advanced exhaust system. The body gained widened flairs, aggressively wide tyres, rally lights, and a little hood scoop. Overall, the Baja Custom has become much more agressive than what it was originally.
This car is being entered by the Sakura-Mathews America Factory Team.
Two good friends, Stephen Nix and Christopher Hind, are US expats who live in Archana and are currently on leave from their oil exploration jobs with the Hell corporation. They have the money and the time to compete and have decided: “why not?”
They are an ameteur team and have used a budget of $10,000 on entering this race.
The Car
Having little money to spare, Chris sourced a straight, rust free, WWII era Bogliq GPDV and set about modifying it to suit the competition. The car was first stripped down, all rust removed and the body resprayed. Since this was an endurance event, raw power wasn’t sourced (or possible, lol) so the ancient OHV four was rebuilt with fully forged internals and a re-tune to efficiently use 92RON. The old carburettor was replaced with a twin barrel Leeroy Racing carb, for reliability, and the jets were re-tuned for efficiency. The exhaust was replaced with a set of tubular headers (scratch built) and the exhaust now had two mufflers so that Chris and Steve could hear each other talk!
The old canvas and steel seats were chucked and much nicer seats from a Bogliq Ambassador were bolted in. A top shelf radio was also installed. The front drums were upgraded with an official US Army field upgrade kit to a twin leading shoe design and a four speed gearbox from a junker Zealot was sourced. Finally, the car was made roadworthy by installing indicators, mirrors and some swanky new radial off-road tyres.
They may win or they may come last, but what is certain is they’ll have a great time doing it!
EDIT: The Ambassador seats broke their bolts (too heavy, lol) and the luxury radio had to be traded in to repair the damage. A set of front seats from a USDM Zealot and a basic radio have been installed in their place…
This is a 1966 TSR Ultra. But not just any Ultra. This is the Rally Safari Edition. They borrowed a chassis of another truck and retrofitted the Ultra body onto it. The result, a 4x4 off-road monster with the same 3.2 litre all-aluminium V8 as the base model Ultra. The budget for Team Katana Racing was $15000 and they did just that. An off-road 4x4 supercar? Here it is!
The Katana Racing Team added 2 bullbars (front and back), a spare tire and an antenna. It’s not too powerful but it’s agile enough for the 1966 Great Archanian Trek…
Team
The Katana Racing Team is the one who tunes the car. The rally driver Cole Mendez with co-driver Takumi Kakayama with the crew chief Yuki Nagasaki and the chief engineer Kei Nakamura are going to participate with this car. They are a new rally team that started rallying at 1965. They want to win the 1966 Great Archanian Trek. But their problem with their car is the same with the Keika I, the fibreglass body. The chassis is okay but the body, the chance if surviving is slim. That means, the team needs to go fast at the most flat surface or go slow at the heavy off-roading route…
Thank you for the responses so far, I thought for quite some time how to do something like this where offroad is relevant and that doesn’t all end up in typical offroaders.
I made one change in the rules to make drivability more relevant.
After every minor mechanical issue, a drivability check will also take place. This is to simulate that minor issues do not cause you to stop immediately but hamper your concentration and your handling. This may add another 30 minutes.
Although it really should make no change, entries already submitted are free to be changed still (once - else it becomes a mess - please use the same PM as your original submission). This just to keep it fair. No need to confirm if you don’t, I honestly don’t expect it.
Because lets face it, the standard Keika is a bit tame. With massive tyres and high suspension, this Keika is not one to mess with. With stats that rival the standard road car, on any terrain, and bulletproof reliability. Get used to the Taillights!
Keika Automotive prides itself of being truthful. With stats like best handling, 0-62, and the best dealership to cemetery time of any car within our price range, we believe the positives outweigh the negatives!
For 1966, the Brigadeer from the Mamayan manufacturer IP Automotive LTD is updated with the new overhead camshaft engine, actually sourced from the sporty Celestia model, which makes it not only a great performer off the road, but also on the road. To prove a point, IP have decided to enter the 1st Great Archanian trek with its factory team. So confident are they in the updated Brigadeer model that they enter with a bone stock Brigadeer 1900 DX2 4x4, only special equipment is a CB radio for communication, back seat delete for space to carry fuel, tyres and spares, and of course, a paintjob in IP Racing blue. Not a colour available on the Brigadeer, but being the official competition colour for the IP Motorsports division, the shade was a no-brainer. Inside the car we will find Chandawang Sangwat as the driver and Pawoon Khaodai as a co-driver, known for many rally victories in their home country. Now our only question is if the manufacturers confidence in their drivers and their bone stock 4x4 will be enough to survive the rough Archanian desert? One thing is for sure, we will follow this with great interest.
(So yeah, I’m entering as a professional team if it wasn’t clear enough)
Sinistra Motors unveiled the Savage in 1965 as a concept, to be produced in 1966. A revolutionary new 464 cubic inch V8 with three valves per cylinder powers the Savage, and a trusty 4 speed manual meant everyone already knew how to drive it.
When Luke Sinistra, the company founder, heard rumors of a rally in 1966, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. As a factory-backed team, they’d have a higher budget, and they had this concept car taking up floor space. “Cars are meant to be driven” after all, and so Luke and the Sinistra Performance Division turned the FWD muscle car into an off-roader to be proud of.
The car was given a stout lift-kit, mostly to fit their Military Surplus off-road tires under the car, the rear seat was removed, and the front buckets replaced. A communications radio was installed in the dash, and the car was given a fresh coat of wax. After all, it won’t do for our concept to be seen looking disgusting before the racing starts. The soft-top was also checked over, and verified that it will go up, and down, under its own power.
Driving for the team is none other than Luke Sinistra himself, and his co-driver is Mark Jasper, an amateur rally enthusiast with 3 races under his belt. There were a few… concerns about the driveline earlier, but Luke insists that they’ll be fine, and that he’s not afraid to show everyone that FWD can handle about as good as RWD offroad. But most importantly, he’s aiming to knock a few of the 4x4 guys down a notch or two.
(Obviously, professional team. Might be amateurs, but they’re factory backed and reusing an old concept car.)
Main driver – Capt George Harcourt-Entwhistle, REME.
Age - Late 30s
Driving experience – Lots in the Engineers!
Other notes – Excellent mechanical knowledge.
Co-Driver – Elizabeth Harcourt-Entwhistle, mother and housewife.
Age – Late 30s.
Driving experience – Driven tractors from a very young age and then progressed onto cars.
Other notes – Adept with finding her way around both a map and a toolbox.
Rebuilt 1945 Franklin Rhino. George found the car in a storage shed whilst stationed in Germany. Army agreed for him to take possession of the wreck and allowed him time to rebuild it. The vehicle was stripped down to bare metal, cleaned up and then repainted in the original DDG (deep dark green). In the process of rebuilding it was deemed necessary to bring it up to date.
Model designation is the G&EHE1966.
Total cost of rebuild - $9,958
Original Model Modification
2.2L i4 engine 3.5L V8 engine
1945 3spd Manual 4x4 1966 4spd Manual 4x4
Drum brakes Disc brakes on front
2 bits of wood for seats Good quality seats because Elizabeth was NOT sitting on tat!
Hydraulic power steering
Only reason I asked was that I alreay had a 4-seater in my lore ready for this, but then I started to wonder what I was thinking since nothing is keeping me from making a clone of the trim and entering it in this competition after removing the back seats… I can think backwards sometimes I guess.
You can role play that this and the reinforced limited capacity fuel tank are the only safety measures the organisation takes. The seats are simply uncomfortable early bucket seats. Worse than a bench, but at least with some head support.
