When it comes to large off-road events in Southern California, Off Road Nights is one of the best known. With thousands of spectators and hundreds of exhibitors, there is also a bit of something for everyone at the show. Last year we got to see a bunch of awesome vehicles at the show, and this year is no different. Below, you’ll find a few of our favorite vintage vehicles that we saw.

Peter Alesi’s 1UZ Powered Vintage Race Buggy

Interesting enough, 2018 has seen a rise in vintage cars. This buggy we found at ORN 2018, raced and owned by Peter Alesi and Peter Alesi Junior, is similar to many vintage buggies on the outside, but underneath it packs a punch that allows it to keep up with much newer buggies.

The chassis of the buggy is a 1989 Chenoweth DR2, but it’s been updated with almost all of the components being new and some of the rules of the vintage class being “bent” – but still fitting in the class rules. The star of this buggy is the engine in the back. As per the rules, the engine of the vehicle must be a 1992 or older, and as you may know, most engines that old are carbureted. Peter didn’t want a carbureted vehicle, so they picked the only fuel injection V8 available at the time, a Toyota 1UZ-FE 4.0L V8.

The only race the buggy has seen so far was the Mint 400, and unfortunately, it broke within the first 100 miles, but it will make an appearance in upcoming races with more testing and tuning under its belt, and should hopefully finish a race without any problems.

Chris Poolvorde’s F-100 Prerunner

Continuing the trend of “vintage” vehicles is Chris Poolvorde’s F-100. Unlike the buggy, this F-100 is designed to be a prerunner, so it isn’t confined by any class rules; rather, just a limitation of a budget. The owner, Chris Poolvorde, bought the truck as his first vehicle. Almost as soon as he purchased the truck, he pulled the engine out, as it was a little weak for his liking. The plan was to rebuild the engine and plop it back in, but the build quickly snowballed.

Eventually, the truck ended up at Weitzel Motorsports where it underwent a full build. The final product is a truck that cycles 24 inches of travel up front with its custom-made I-beam suspension, and 30 inches in the rear. Under the hood in an LS3 backed up with a 4L80E. Chris tried to keep the original look and feel of the truck, but also turn it into an extremely capable prerunner.

Ivan Stewart’s Restored F-100

The final vehicle on the list is another F-100. This one, owned by Mark Stahl, is important because it used to be Ivan Stewart’s rig back in the early ‘80s. The truck has been fully restored back to its former glory by Stahl. Before the restoration process began, Stahl called Ivan Stewart, who was able to verify that it was, indeed, his old prerunner. Keeping the vehicle period correct, it has a very old-school setup.

Up front are stock width I-beams which have been reinforced and paired with Bilstein shocks, giving it an impressive 14 inches of suspension travel. In the rear are National leaf springs mounted to a reinforced Ford 9-inch rear end with triple Bilstein shocks, cycling 13 inches of travel. Under the hood is a 400M V8 with an 8:1 compression ratio, outputting an estimate 350 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque.