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Kenny Blume's finally going fast..... Ultra 4 build thread

274K views 788 replies 146 participants last post by  stan o 
#1 · (Edited)
Ok, I've been racing a while.... mostly crawling, but I had a damn fast 2040lb mud drag car in my 20's, then some mutli sport stuff in the early 2000's, got heavy into comp crawling after that.

I dabbled in XRRA and other local go fast with my current ProMod crawler, could hold my own in the technical courses (when I wasn't going wide and climbing trees) but was lacking as things evolved to longer faster stretches. 6 spark plugs (Though blown) and a low range only transfer case were not helping the cause.

Time to take the plunge.... luckily, a lot of good friends have gone before me and I can learn from their experience. The theme is to spend wisely, spend enough to get good parts that will play nice together and survive the abuse, but also save a buck where I can... racing isn't cheap and neither is the diesel to get there.

We had considered a new one size fits all car, but after careful evaluation concluded there was just too much compromise, it would never crawl as well as my ProMod, and if I kept crawling in mind, I would hinder the go fast abilities of the new car too. So the team will have another asset on the books, two tools for two different jobs. Dad will do most of the go fast driving this year, but I'm sure BB will get some seat time too.

I know that one longer go fast race can put more abuse on a ride than a season of crawling comps.... there will be more PM, but hopefully less carnage and similar reliability (that I've reeeeeally come to enjoy) if I do it right.

Lots of parts are on order, the majority converging in Tulsa in the coming weeks. We will go lighter/more local the first year as we learn the car and relearn driving fast, a mix of Dirt riot, Ultra 4, and SRRS. Still keeping the ProMod car for the rock comps.

Specs/components include...

GoatBuilt IBEX 2 seat chassis
L92 Escalade motor, stock with tune about 440/440
6L80E trans(same crawl as I have now AND 100-110 mph in LOW range)
Ford 205 tcase (saving money, only 28 lb gain)
Maxxis 40" treps
Trail-Gear fabbed nines/knuckles
Trail-Gear full hydro steering
Trail-Gear brakes
Fox coilovers and bypasses
Warn Zeon 8S winch
Tom Woods Driveshafts
Rokit enterprises Fab and moral support
Ruff Stuff Rod ends and lighting
PRP seats and harnesses
Yukon low thirds with 5.40's/drivetrain
Baertrax extinguisher mts, extinguishers and ??


Pics and posts to follow....
 
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#5 ·
About the IBEX.... lots of talented designers and fabricators out there.... but I challenge you to find anyone who has done a better job with nodes/triangulation, overall scale/geometry and precision manufacturing. And it's in kit form easy for the home fabricator.

Racing helps things evolve.... working with Drew, he now offers a Chromoly option saving 75?? lbs. Rokit enterprises has offered to Tig the entire chassis because, well, most of you have seen my welds:flipoff2: We are also working together to develop/offer mounts that allow you to take advantage of car oil pans and mount the drivetrain a couple inches lower in the chassis.

I'll go just a bit custom and lower the seats some as well.

I went with his "Complete" kit, because of how much time and money it saves at the end of the day.
 

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#11 ·
I have been looking at using the 6l80 and np205 for a build also. Even with stupid deep axle gears the gear spread is so broad in the transmission you can do just about anything. Even 6.XX gears in the diffs and you can still cruise down the road no problem.

How are you going to adapt the two? The clocking of the pattern is a little odd on the 6l80 from what I can tell. I think the new AA tailhousing could be drilled for the ford np205 pattern?

The np205 is only about 5lbs heavier than a 4spd atlas :)

I will be keeping an eye on this one....
 
#13 ·
I'll confirm next week when my drivetrain shows up, it's shipping today. AFAIK, the 6l80E has the same round atlas/300 pattern but clocked different. should be able to redrill and tap the cast iron 205. I ordered a 32 spline short input from Off-road design, came in this week, nice piece. the Ford 205 already has 32 spline outputs and the larger bearing bore for the input. may shave the case some for weight and packaging. I'm told the AA piece handles the clocking and is a bit stronger.... but if I can save the $200 I will:)
 

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#12 ·
Cool! I've been wondering if you would make the jump and interested to see what you show up with. You always run a competitive race program and have been working with the same equipment for a long time!
 
#14 ·
Thanks, The ProMod has six seasons on it now, multiple podiums and championships. it's dialed in and reliable... just some occasional driver error which Randy Dohr capitalizes on. It's because it's so reliable now that I feel I can tackle another ride and still have time and money for the wimenz:flipoff2:
 
#15 ·
car pan and intake and you can get it ALOT lower
but with the 205 you might end up higher in the rear and have weird angles on rear shaft

Like you said the IBEX is a well thought out chassis - I'm really liking my 4 seater but after seeing that layout it make me want to build exactly what you are putting together, although I'd go 4 seater and ditch anything TG.

Good luck to you Ken and Brandon, this will definitely be a build and team to watch! Just keep the updates coming and get a good camera this time!
 
#16 ·
truck intake makes good power and already below the chassis lines so I'll save the coin even though it's a fugly intake. 205 should fit just fine, maybe a hair wider than atlas, will have pics of that setup before Christmas.... Jake Good is giving me the buddy deal on the 205 and I don't have it yet.

your TG comment. Trav, I know you mean well???, but you have a loooong history of talking out ur a**. You claim to be an engineer. Act like one and research before you provide comment. They are more than worthy, and many respected fabricators racers already know that. Your comments are grade school man. Peace, off my soapbox.

There's your popcorn factor peeps:flipoff2:
 
#19 ·
I would be interested to see how many bulges you can shave off the NP205 case to make it a little more compact.

I've done some layout on the 6l80. Even with the shorter G8 oil pan on the ls engine and 6l80 transmission an atlas can be clocked down to the 20-23 degree position before it passes the bottom of the 6l80 ( even with the short pan ). The 6l80 is pretty dang deep from centerline to the bottom....
 
#22 ·
Big day, the first of the parts have arrived! Can't wait to see all of this come together! I'm feverishly working to get the shop emptied out so we can start burning rod on the Ibex when it arrives.

Jake: I'm with ya, I love the Rokit and Kenny's racer but Dan's is still my favorite buggy. The Broncno is in a class of its own, I like it enough that I've considered selling the beemer..... I've sure put more miles on it than the bike in the last year.
 
#23 ·
hey I'm entitled to my opinion
I've got plenty of research to make my opinion, to each their own, besides everyone knows I talk out my a**, it's the internet take it for what it's worth.

Now on with more pics! Lets see some more IBEX and Rockit stuff, this will be good

What's the timeline look like on the build? I wanna see you show the rockbouncers how smooth is fast in SRRS!
 
#25 ·
I'm interested to see how you mate that drivetrain and this chassis. I'd love to replace my wrecked chassis with a Goat Built 2 or 4 seater and rec wheel it but I don't want to be first out of the gate :) I know Drew builds an awesome product I've just been burned before. So get this thing done and let me ride shotgun for a test at KOH :)

Call me anytime for more info on the 6l80 or tuning help and ideas on car pans or whatever for the engine.

Looking forward to see how you lower the seats as well. Being 6'4" I'd love to keep the roofline low but have safe headroom too. that 6l80 is a tall biatch :)

The 205 can easily be clocked to work with the 6l80. basically instead of having bolt holes at the 10 and 2 position on the tailhousing like a th400 adapter or Jeep trans, the 6l80 has a top hole at the high noon position and the other holes in the standard atlas/d300 clocking pattern then fall where they will. You could actually drill the 6l80 holes one size up and then the non concentric bolt pattern no longer matters because there is enough slop to fit the 6 studs through the tailhousing. I did that with an old tf727 trans to a Stak.
 
#27 ·
I'm interested to see how you mate that drivetrain and this chassis.

Call me anytime for more info on the 6l80 or tuning help and ideas on car pans or whatever for the engine.

Looking forward to see how you lower the seats as well. Being 6'4" I'd love to keep the roofline low but have safe headroom too. that 6l80 is a tall biatch :)

.
In Drews original thread in this forum where he introduced the chassis, he laid a 6L80 atlas combo in there. maybe with an atlas 4 speed, not sure. he had to redo the front xmember near the bellhousing and he used the truck oil pan and trans pan. All at a 6 degree rake.

My GT trans pan comes in friday and I will use a car oil pan. I know I can lower the whole deal 3/4" from what he did, but hope to gain another inch or so at the engine. I would think he would've come across seat mount issues when he laid it out in solid works.

I saw his roller a couple weeks ago in person, with that set up, there was an easy two inches to lower the seats. I'm not going to get greedy with lowering the seats, I need to see over the wheel:)

I will fab the front axle to the same dims as the crawler to use the same axle shafts, just over 80" wide.

I do need to find some shorty headers that dump relatively straight our from the ports and sweep back.... will make sense when i get more pics up.

Dave, counting on u for tranny help:)
 
#28 ·
In the mean time, been keeping busy with a little trailer project..... cheap, recycling a bunch of metal etc, flyweight, low, good for about 97-117" WB will be ready for paint after the weekend.... single solid axle.
 

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#29 ·
The Pontiac G8 pans ( and perhaps 2010+ Camaro ) are about as low as you can go with the LS engine and 6l80 combo. I think the factory angle is in the 2.5-3 degree range? The G8 style pan is a little deeper than the old LS1 camaro pan, but not much. Generally the 6l80 is going to be the lowest point even with the short car pan.
 
#30 ·
If you mean 80" outside of tire to outside of tire, I think you are going to want to be quite a bit wider than that for stability racing and to get decent steering angles with this chassis. I am 83" outside of tires and should have gone a bit wider. It does make fitting in an enclosed trailer a bit harder at wider than 83" unless you have the height to go over the ramps.
 
#33 · (Edited)
My steering is limited by the whole design that incorporates my hydro-assist steering system. I'm only running 37's and turn 38 degrees. Tires aren't close to hitting anything. The current build I'm doing has 42's and almost 50 degrees of steering with the same chassis. It's 84" wide though. I personally don't agree with the trend of "bigger, wider, longer" Ultra 4 cars.
 
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