Monday 6th July 2015

Rock racing finals: Time For Tea?

Independence Day weekend gives us an excuse to celebrate this most American form of motorsport

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There are two main schools of thought when it comes to off-roading. The sensible and thoroughly British approach - which you'll be taught if you ever do a Land Rover event - is to stay slow and steady at all times. Think carefully about what you're going to do, walk the route beforehand, measure the depth of standing water and then - when you do go for it - travel as quickly as you have to, but no faster.

Then there's what could be termed the American approach, as demonstrated by this spectacular video: attacking seemingly impossible obstacles on full throttle and trusting raw horsepower to get you over or through them. Sure you'll crash and break your car more often, but it's hard to deny that it looks like considerably more fun...

Rock racing is popular in much of the U.S. - normally the parts where you'll hear banjo music playing when you go rafting - and the forthcoming July 4th celebrations give us all the excuse we need to share some of this most spectacular form of motorsport. The buggies themselves are basically just roll cages, axles and massive V8 engines. There's definitely some technique in evidence, and we love the steering rear axles many of the cars have. But for the most part the approach of most competitors could be summed up as "if in doubt, flat out." We see nothing wrong that!

Watch the video here.

 

[anonymous-user]

A more concise article could have read:

'As in every other aspect of the American way of life, there is little to no finesse. Now enjoy this.'

I bet the Finish and Icelandic racers would walk all over them though.

[seefarr]

Some great V8 noises there. Aussie Racer also did a rock crawling episode that is worth a look for a beginners point of view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrq5ZFESZTQ

[PhillipM]

OP said:

The sensible and thoroughly British approach - which you'll be taught if you ever do a Land Rover event - is to stay slow and steady at all times. Think carefully about what you're going to do, walk the route beforehand, measure the depth of standing water and then - when you do go for it - travel as quickly as you have to, but no faster.

You, my friend, need to come to some British off road events. Bring some clean underwear. And some humble pie.

[100SRV]

PhillipM said:

You, my friend, need to come to some British off road events. Bring some clean underwear. And some humble pie.

What he said ^

[pozi]

I have a radio controlled monster truck and I drive it exactly the same way

[e28_S38]

Reminds me of Monty's versus Patton's approach. No wonder Patton scared the scheisse out of the Jerry's. While Monty was mucking about in the low countries Patton was flat-out winning the war for y'all. If he would've had his way Berlin would've just been a place to refuel and reload on his way to Moscow. 'merica, f*** yeah! Happy Independence day!!

[ScoJak]

That was absolutely awesome!

[dinkel]

Discovered this a few years ago. Took me back to my Lego years. Still have the electric powered AWD who drove very slow - two gearboxes connected - and went over everything I threw in front of it.

How could I image one day this stuff would be real? Epic.

[griffo71]

Similar but slightly different events here in Australia (&NZ)
Lots of home-made ingenuity in the buggies.
Not all of which are petrol V8s.
Fair share of turbo-diesels too
Excellent.

[defblade]

Hey! I've got one of those!


Just that mine's 1/10th scale




Amazing the amount of tyre flex in some of the slo-mo moments - mine's running more accurately than I imagined!

[Motormatt]

defblade said:

Hey! I've got one of those!


Just that mine's 1/10th scale




Amazing the amount of tyre flex in some of the slo-mo moments - mine's running more accurately than I imagined!

defblade - I bought an Axial Wraith 2 weeks ago, it is (unlike yours) as yet unmodified but brilliant fun! Funny how I've never seen rock racing mentioned on PH before, good to see some alternative motor sports getting some love on PH

[defblade]

Motormatt said:

defblade - I bought an Axial Wraith 2 weeks ago, it is (unlike yours) as yet unmodified but brilliant fun! Funny how I've never seen rock racing mentioned on PH before, good to see some alternative motor sports getting some love on PH

In case you haven't found it yet, rccrawler.com is the place to be. Yours won't be OE for long

[Motormatt]

defblade said:

Motormatt said:

defblade - I bought an Axial Wraith 2 weeks ago, it is (unlike yours) as yet unmodified but brilliant fun! Funny how I've never seen rock racing mentioned on PH before, good to see some alternative motor sports getting some love on PH

In case you haven't found it yet, rccrawler.com is the place to be. Yours won't be OE for long

Cheers - I've checked rccrawler.com out, its brilliant, there are just so many options for these things!

[defblade]

Motormatt said:

Cheers - I've checked rccrawler.com out, its brilliant, there are just so many options for these things!

Oh yes. They mostly seem to creep in under customs' radar, too... touch wood, I've never picked up charges on RC stuff from the States or Hong Kong