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A Road-Racing Jeep?

How two Washington racers turned a $200 XJ into a Bimmer-beater

On a drizzly January afternoon in Monterey, California, Team Petty Cash's boxy '89 Jeep Cherokee XJ crests the hill at the Corkscrew, the unmistakable turn at the top of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. If the driver wasn't focused on positioning the Jeep to perfectly slingshot down the 10-story drop from top of the famed racetrack through the twisting curves, he could just catch a glimpse north of the storms in the adjacent valley over. Instead, the Jeep negotiates the Corkscrew and subsequent Rainey Curve with less drama than the score of Mazda Miatas and BMW 3-Series it competes with in the Lucky Dog Racing League. So how accept Team Petty Cash taken a two-wheel-drive XJ and made it a competitive clay-inexpensive road racer?

The adventure started when former neighbors Jesse Bauman and Matt Adair discovered the 24 Hours of LeMons in 2009 and opted to build what they knew: an XJ Cherokee. Both had owned and driven them for years. Keeping a car running for an endurance race would surely value a tough chassis over outright speed, so they gear up out to find a beat-on old XJ near the shop where they prepared their King of the Hammers Jeeps in Washington state. Their search turned up a rare (for the Pacific Northwest anyway) two-wheel-drive '89 on craigslist with 201,000 miles. The white Cherokee'southward seller listed information technology for $500 with the disclaimer that it didn't run. Adair and Bauman looked at it in person and diagnosed the consequence as a grounding problem. They haggled the price to $200, then towed it home and had the 4.0L straight-six running in no time. Afterwards adding a vi-signal rollcage, a racing seat, five-betoken harness, and a coat of actual "Petty Blue" pigment, the newly christened Piddling Cash Racing Cherokee ran its first LeMons race in December 2009 at Thunderhill. They finished a respectable 63rd identify out of 145 cars. "Nosotros didn't wait to exist competitive, we just thought it would be hilarious," Matt says. "Then we did well in our kickoff race and here we are, seven years later on."

If Y'all Build It…

After a few races with nearly stock everything, Jesse and Matt decided to make the car handle and brake similar a proper racecar. In the forepart, Niggling Greenbacks added adjustable ball joints to increase negative camber, which improved tire wear and grip. The stock front springs remain on the Jeep even so, although the team cutting off one 1/2 coils to lower it. To cope with the ride-height change, Adair sourced a beat-up pair of Bilstein shocks of the correct length from a Ford Econoline. In the rear, they moved the leaf-spring shackles from higher up the axle to below it, which lowered the rear and prevented beam-wrap. To stiffen the rear end, a 3-inch foliage was added. The stop result was a Jeep with very piffling suspension travel in the front or rear, which helps it skate through corners with minimal body roll.

The next big upgrade came with the brakes. While adding Jeep TJ knuckles and bearings—which have not been touched more than five years later—they also opted for the Black Magic big-brake swap for a Wrangler, which includes two-piston calipers from a 3/4-ton Contrivance pickup and xiii.8-inch rotors. That'southward a lot of brakes for a vehicle that weighs effectually 3,100 pounds, and it allows the boxy Jeep to stop better than much lighter cars. The rotor upgrades necessitated bigger wheels. Since brakes, wheels, and tires are exempt from 24 Hours of LeMons' budget rules, they went big with 17x8 steel Raceline wheels carrying 255/40/17 Falken Azenis RT-615K tires.

The wheels stuck well outside the stock bodywork and then Bauman designed fender flares to accommodate the expansive safety. In the front, the fenders were cut at the top and Bauman tack-welded 3-inch-wide inserts to either side of the cutting. This immune the original mounting points to remain for ease of replacement should a fender get crunched. The rear fenders were designed using CAD (cardboard-assisted design) templates that allowed Bauman to cut the pieces from thin plate steel and weld them to the rear fender.

The original 4.0L direct-6 has developed a reputation for toughness in the off-road community and is generally capable of running without oiling problems despite weird angles. Until putting on the big, gluey Falken tires, Piffling Cash Racing had few issues with their XJ's four.0. However, they presently found that with grippier tires, the increased lateral Gs in long corners was starving the engine of oil. They cooked three or four engines earlier adding homebrewed oil-pan baffling and a second-paw Accusump oil accumulator plumbed with actual dwelling-improvement-store plumbing fittings.

The transmission remained the AW4 automatic transmission, which the squad fit with a manual shifter. The AW4 proved up to endurance racing's claiming, even withstanding an accidental throw into reverse at 85 mph. In fact, the whole chassis withstood that shock well (the bad shift merely ripped off a leafage-spring mount). Everything else—driver's conform aside—was fine after the wild ride. With the original Jeep engine, Team Niggling Cash took abode LeMons' acme prize, the Alphabetize of Effluency, for the vehicle that does the most with the least, and they too collected a win in LeMons' Class C. The Cherokee near picked upwardly another victory in Grade B, though they were foiled by a different kind of unplanned reversal: While leading Grade B comfortably at one race, one driver's pre-driving meal re-emerged all over the inside of the Jeep.

Truckin'

Eventually, Petty Cash Racing decided that while they were happy to pass much of the field in a stock-engine, automated-equipped Jeep, they wanted to whistle by even more cars. Their side by side upgrade entailed scoring a 5.3L Chevy LM7 Vortec V-8—commonly known as an atomic number 26-block LS engine—from a totaled Chevy Silverado. Knowing they didn't need whatsoever more than horsepower than was offered from the stock 5.iii, they left the engine untouched. The engine mounts came from Brown Dog Off Route, who worked with Petty Cash as function of their plan to develop an LS bandy kit for the XJ. The primeval attempts at racing the V-8 as well included an unnecessarily complicated adapter for the AW4.

That showtime engine, nonetheless, expired in its beginning race. After tracing the problem to oiling issues, they were back in business organization after finding another 5.3 from a Chevy Express Van. A totaled 2001 Camaro gave them a T56 six-speed transmission transmission and a better oil pan for the engine. The Accusump was retained and a Griffin radiator fitted, arguably the biggest change made under the hood. Aside from the air filter from a Ford F350 diesel, the intake and exhaust are stock parts. Downstream is a parts-store "Flowmaster" knock-off that unremarkably dumps a single exhaust out the passenger side ahead of the rear tire, although Laguna Seca's stringent ninety-decibel limit necessitated adding a Supertrap. The ECU is a stock tune, though Pacific Fabricators unlocked it to get by all the anti-theft devices in the software. While the original Silverado's harness was cannibalized to brand the engine piece of work, Team Petty Greenbacks too kept much of the Cherokee harness in place to operate things like the brake lights, headlights, windshield wipers, and assorted other electric items. That leaves parts of two wiring harnesses in, and while it isn't the prettiest or lightest, it works but the same.

The V-8 presented some clearance issues with the front axle. To arrange this, Petty Greenbacks cut out the beam beam'southward center section and fabricated beefy foursquare tubing—shaped to articulate the oil pan—to link the 2 remaining sides. The team cut "speed holes" into the foursquare tube to salvage a pound or ii. They eventually also cutting a narrow triangle wedge out of that square tubing and welded it back to together; that little flake of angle created increased the negative camber to as much as -6 degrees, though they tend to run closer to -3 degrees.

The rear axle was as well swapped out for a Ford 8.8-inch rear cease from a Ford Explorer. That too gave the XJ disc brakes in the rear, which are the stock Explorer setup. The centre section of the differential is a GMC Yukon limited-slip unit of measurement with three.55 gears. Bizarrely, the stock two-wheel-drive Cherokee driveshaft slipped right into the T56 and bolted up perfectly to the Ford 8.eight. Because those driveshafts are a different length than the 4x4 XJ 'shafts, and therefore rare, Petty Cash keeps a spare driveshaft on hand.

How does it race?

"The lack of suspension travel takes some getting used to," Adair said. "Merely it turns great, sticks skilful, and the brakes are phenomenal. We've had pro drivers in this auto and they e'er become out grinning."

Rex of the Hammers cofounder Dave Cole drove with Lilliputian Greenbacks at Laguna Seca. He had never road-raced and spent his get-go hr in the car trying to find his pavement-racing feet. By the time he collection his 2d stint in the automobile on Lord's day, withal, Cole chopped several seconds off his quickest lap and enjoyed blasting past BMWs and Miatas. When he finally emerged from the Jeep subsequently two hours, his smile stretched across his helmet's open visor.

Over the years running the Jeep with both the V-eight and 4.0L, Piffling Cash have outperformed any expectation for a chassis designed to take corruption off the pavement. Adair credits not merely the off-road design but likewise their off-roading experience to keep the Jeep competitive.

"Durability is key. If you take a [BMW] iii-Series and slide it effectually, stuff breaks," Adair said. "But if yous take a Jeep designed to become off-road and pull a minor trailer, it holds up really well in endurance racing. When things intermission, our feel with trail fixes—beer cans hose-clamped around radiator hoses and so forth when you're out in the heart of nowhere—helps keep the matter running."

Not Canis familiaris Tired

The Lucky Domestic dog Racing League weekend started off a bit rough for Team Petty Cash. During a rest finish in Oregon while towing the Jeep from Washington to California for the race, they experienced uncharacteristically cold temperatures, turning the h2o in the cooling system to slush. Thankfully, information technology didn't freeze plenty to push out whatsoever freeze plugs or burst anything, merely nervousness over residual impairment lingered all weekend. To pinnacle that off, merely five miles from Laguna Seca, an emergency cease with the tow rig sent the team's huge toolbox flight off their open trailer. The resulting cleanup acquired them to miss tech inspection, adding another item to their Saturday morning checklist.

That left the team scrambling to make Sabbatum's race start, simply they presently settled into a rhythm with the drivers—Cole, Bauman, Adair, and regular commuter Jamie Hutchins—finding a comfy step on Sat to leave enough tread on the Falken tires to cope with the expected pelting for Sunday's 7-hour race. The team finished 14th of 47 starters and 8th in Class B on Saturday. Dominicus's race brought a downpour when Hutchins headed onto the track after the offset driver alter. The Jeep seemed to enjoy the rain and despite a scrap of contact that brought out a five-minute penalty for Team Petty Greenbacks, Adair hopped in for the final two hours from 12th identify. In the rain, but three or four cars went quicker than the XJ and when the Petty Blue Cherokee saw the checkered flag, the team had climbed to 8th place overall and 3rd in Class B, proficient enough to accept home a trophy.

Adair didn't feel too bad about finishing in "only" 3rd identify, particularly since the two cars alee of him in the class were Spec Miatas, cars that tin can seldom be built for less than $15,000. Not only was Trivial Greenbacks racing a Jeep with 1,000 more than pounds than a Spec Miata, Adair quipped, "I could build another Jeep like this tomorrow for less than $five,000."

Running With the Dogs

Lucky Dog Racing League began in 2015 as role of the low-budget endurance-racing world started past the 24 Hours of LeMons in 2006. Unlike LeMons, there are no budget restrictions in Lucky Canis familiaris. Contest classes are adamant by the competitors' qualifying- or race-step. The result at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca featured two races of 6 one/2 and vii hours on Sat and Dominicus, respectively.

Source: https://www.motortrend.com/events/1705-a-road-racing-jeep/

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