The color-changing iridescent wrap on this Jimco Hammerhead will, tragically, get scratched and scored to hell by rocks and dust a few miles into its first race but it looks pretty badass in a studio. Take a closer look here at some of the details of this Class 1 racing car.
Class 1 is a fast and competitive type of desert race vehicle. SCORE (the sanctioning body that runs the Baja 1000 and other major off-road races; stands for Southern California Off-Road Enthusiasts) puts very few restrictions on these machines. Specifically, a Class 1 Baja race car is:
- Open-wheel (can’t have a body that looks like a truck)
- One or two seats
- Unlimited displacement
- Rear or mid-engine
- Independent rear suspension
You can peep the rule book if you want more detail than that, but you probably get the idea that builders have a decent amount of room for creativity with those guidelines.
Jimco, an outfit that’s been building desert race cars for many years, has just completed this car for off-road racer Mario Fuentes. Fuentes has named it La Buchoncita and plans to compete in SCORE’s Baja Series. Apparently its the fourth Jimco vehicle to use this design the company calls the “Hammerhead.”
Here’s more of a general rundown from a press release:
Open-wheel cars still dominate racing as they did for the first 20 years in off-road racing until 1989 when young off-road maverick Robby Gordon won in truck ushering in the era of Trophy Trucks. In fact, the large majority of off-road race vehicles were open-wheel style buggies. Open-wheel cars are typically lower weight and have better aerodynamics than trophy trucks and other vehicles with full bodies. The design also allows for better cooling of the engine as well as improved cooling of the brakes although the exposure of the wheels causes a very high aerodynamic drag at high speeds. Jimco has taken the best parts of their world-beating “Champion” Class 1 car platform and evolved it integrating technology developed from their “Maximus” trophy truck platform to bring you the “Hammerhead” Class 1 platform integrating the best of horsepower, agility, and suspension.
“The “Hammerhead” takes the best features of a modern day trophy truck and packages into a Class 1 car with increased front wheel travel, a steering box for increased turning radius, and 20” longer trailing arms for increased forward bite and improved suspension over a traditional “buggy” trailing arm. The “Hammerhead” Mid-Engine design changes the placement of the vehicle’s weight improving handling and the cornering ability. This next generation of Class 1 car sits on 40” BFG KM2 Race Tires, and is finished with the same specialty features that go into every Jimco race vehicle, making it a contender for overall victories. Fuentes made the exterior of this “Hammerhead” stand out by wrapping it in a special Purple, blue, and orange 3M Iridescence wrap. Inside the driver and co-driver seat snugly in Impact Carbon Fiber HS1 race seats wrapped in the Momo Camlock Restraint System. The dash features a horizontally aligned panel cluster including dual Motec electronic keypads, dual Lowrance GPS systems and the dual Motec electronic displays so you will know where you are and be aware of all of your vehicle information.”
La Buchoncita is powered by a 477 cubic-inch engine claiming to 850 horsepower. Jimco reports that the car weighs 4,900 pounds with a 125-inch wheelbase and 92-inch track width.
The suspension has 24 inches of travel (a stock Ford Raptor has about 14) and that combine with 40-inch tires will give it the ground clearance necessary to scramble over rocks. Or, boulders.
Savor the scroll and take a closer look:
