everybody seems to accept the concept which says "lighter = better" for all kinds of vehicles, for offroad cars and especially for race cars like desert racers.

is it really right or is it a mith?

can anyone prove it mathematically?

and if it is right, why do all TTs weigh at least 5000-5500lbs??

obviously, it should not be a problem for those expert designers and builders in America to build 2x4 TTs as light as 3500-4000lbs and even much less, using all those exotic metals and tubes, chromo axles, aluminum engines, etc. etc.

is there another hidden reason why all those TTs weigh that much?

or is it that a heavier car running a 800hp motor is better than a lighter one??

i wonder.

light = less effort to move


there are situations where a heavier rig can out preform a lighter rig but 9/10 the lighter rig will win.

mst truck wind up weighing so much because availble strong parts are heavier than others.

a d60 is 200lbs heaveir but it would cost 3-4x as much to make a d44 just as strong.

a 454 big block chevy is 700 lbs and makes great power for little money, a 454 small block is only 450 lbs but will cost you $8000

trophy racing trucks are 3-4000 which i would consider light wieght but cost $100-250,000

trophy racing trucks are 3-4000 which i would consider light wieght but cost $100-250,000

not true - check all the TT specs and you'll find otherwise, unless the publication are intentionally false.

Trophy Trucks are heavy. They go fast as shit and risk having problems at high speed. That means the chassis must be up to the task. Add to that the components that will take the abuse with such high horsepower are heavy. Then you have the spares and fuel that adds even more weight. I would venture to say that a Trophy Truck could easily be down around 3k without the safety and spares. There is something different in other motorsports where all you have to do is get around a track. Your parts are just around the corner.

It depends. For unlimited class vehicles sprung/unsprung mass ratio is just as important as overall mass.

Start adding up the components that a TT needs to win. They may not be light compared to a 16 car, but you can bet they've been built to be as light as possible while still survive races. Also think about the weight of some of the parts on them, 6 39" Baja T/As, 70 gallons of fuel and the tubing required to make sure that cell doesn't fall out, 4.0 bypass shocks, 4" .250 wall rear ends, shit's not light.

F=m*a

A good example of is lighter better was the first year or two that CORR was racing out at Chula Vista and they had the Desert class's. They went so slow compared to a Pro Lite, Pro 2 or Pro 4 trucks. The Pro 2's have about the same power but the weight was so much less you'd have thought the Desert trucks were powered but air cooled VW's lol! Braking and cornering speeds were way compromised but the excessive weight too.

The added weight comes in the form of strength. If you look at any trophy truck or unlimited car you will see they make every attempt at lightening them up, but a heavy car is inevitable when you need it to survive 100+ MPH. Trophy truck chassis and suspension are extremely heavy when compared to a CORR style truck.

Spare parts are a huge weight factor CORR trucks don't have to deal with. On an unlimited car you carry a spare tire, all engine belts, complete axle and CV set up, auxillary fuel and ignition set ups, maybe a spare battery/altenator. Not to mention a jack, impact gun, and all the necessary hand tools to fix minor repairs.

The big factor is safety..... cutting out safety components such as cross bracing, protective panels, and sufficient lighting can cost you your life. A couple of my friends went end over end 5 times at over 90MPH..... you should see the in car footage :eek: They were in a well built car and walked away from it without a scratch.

Look at the VW Tourag trophy truck and all the NASA type materials in that thing.... it was still heavy. A class 9 or 1600 on the other hand is lightened up to the point safety becomes the limiting factor.

Well we have done testing our older Pro 2 truck and its roughly 2.5 seconds a lap quicker when we took off the 200 lb weights off of the back of the truck on your typical CORR west coast style track layouts. They had been placed there by the previous owner/builders who had factory Ford backing/testing at their disposal. We have used the truck to race out in the dezert and just plain outrun our competition even though we had far less HP. The truck was lighter and that proved no match. Anyone that races Circle track will tell you the same thing. Thats why they have minimum weight limits as does CORR. More weight is not a good thing if you want to go fast. You do have do finish so durability does come into play but when you make one part heavier all the rest must be beefed up to match...

It's all a mithtery to me?:flipoff2:

what about in reguards to handling??? i've never run a race truck, but i will tell you i've done many desert races on a bike. at first i was running a cr250, then switched to a crf450 (i would say a good 50# difference) and while i was a lot faster in the tight with the 250 it would ricochet off rocks where as the 450 seemed to doze through making me be able to take lines that would kill me on the 250.

like i said i don't know if it's the same on a truck, but when i watch those 1600's cruising down a whoop section and a TT the 1600 does not look like a smooth ride.

You can't compare those two. Even if you added weight to the 1600 so it weighted the same as the TT it would not be a smooth ride in fact it would be worse as it would be bottoming out all the time. Even if you added weight to the 1600 so it weighed 10000 lbs more than the TT now it would be bottomed out standing still and be so heavy you could not accelerate much less slow down for turns etc. The TT is smoother cause it has better suspension. Same with your 450--its suspended better than your 250 was. Gennerally you can get away with more on a lighter bike cause it is much more resistant to bottoming than a heavier bike.

You can't compare those two. Even if you added weight to the 1600 so it weighted the same as the TT it would not be a smooth ride in fact it would be worse as it would be bottoming out all the time. Even if you added weight to the 1600 so it weighed 10000 lbs more than the TT now it would be bottomed out standing still and be so heavy you could not accelerate much less slow down for turns etc. The TT is smoother cause it has better suspension. Same with your 450--its suspended better than your 250 was. Gennerally you can get away with more on a lighter bike cause it is much more resistant to bottoming than a heavier bike.

you are right two different platforms....but you would never add weight without doing something to the suspension...a 1000# car and a 3000# car don't use the same suspension. as far as the 450 and 250, both ran same suspension set up for my weight...the lighter ricocheted off rocks, and the heavier didn't...like i stated in my first post i don't have experience with trucks, just bikes...