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Temecula, California was once again host to the off-road community as Off Road Nights rolled into town. For one afternoon and evening, thousands were able to see what made the hobby great: killer trucks, badass kits and mods, and good times aplenty.
We walked, talked, and balked at amazing builds when we were out at Off Road Nights this year. From crawling Chevys to desert-bombing prerunners, there was a plethora of four-wheeled machines on display, all waiting to be explored and gawked at.
Such a sight begged for us to find our top five vehicles from the show. Here they are, starting with none other than Brandon Standridge and his classic Jeep CJ.
#5 Brandon Standridge’s 1975 CJ-5
This CJ-5 was one creation that made us stop and do some more investigating. Owned by Brandon Standridge, the Jeep had been stretched to the length of a CJ-6 and given a host of goodies that made it stand out from the crowd.
“It has the AMC 304ci V8, a Dana 30 front end, and a Dana 44 rearend,” said Brandon. “It’s all locked out and has an onboard air compression system. It’s had a bunch of fabrication done to it, and I went for a retro, Vietnam-era look with the olive drab paint and desert-style armor, bumpers, and cage.”
The build was finished in three months, with only hours to spare before Off Road Nights. This was because the soft top required some finishing touches.
Brandon stated that he had always wanted either a CJ-6 or CJ-8, but the difficulty in finding one in good condition drove him to make one for himself. “I bought it about two years ago in Redlands, California,” he said. “It was in very nice condition, but then I took it out on a trail and flipped it!”
The accident made Brandon start over from scratch and led to where it stands today. “Tactical Industries in Fallbrook, California worked very closely with the build and with my own company,” Brandon explained. “We actually finished putting the soft top on and completed the stitching at the last minute.”
The Jeep did an endo three months ago and tweaked the frame, but that didn’t stop Brandon and his team. “We had to get all of the body panels to fit within a thousandth of an inch, which was probably the most difficult part of the build,” he said.
This wasn’t to say that the CJ had reached its zenith, however. “I’d like to link the suspension and throw some 37-inch tires on it eventually,” said Brandon. He plans to take the Jeep to several events later this year, including the Rubicon Trail.
#4 Eddie Orton’s W.E. Rock Car
Since its beginning in 2000 as CalROCS, the World Extreme Rock Crawling Championships (W.E. ROCK) has exploded in popularity and become a riveting and gnarly series on par with Ultra4 Racing, while still remaining accessible to the everyman.
At Off Road Nights, we got the chance to see one of the 4x4s that competes in the series. Owned by Eddie Orton, the vehicle had all the makings of a rough-and-tumble yet capable machine: long-travel suspension, meaty tires, beadlock wheels, a stout V6, solid axles, and a transfer case all wrapped up in a tight package.
Eddie got started on the build in 2013. “It started with a garage, and then I got a tube bender and a welder, and then I got a shop,” said Eddie, explaining some of the background of himself and his vehicle. “This was a full-built chassis made by myself, starting with a stick of tubing and it kind of went from there.”
One interesting aspect of the W.E. ROCK car is its seat. “It’s not in line with the rest of the car,” said Eddie. “It sits askew. The drivetrain was the most important thing to get set up correctly, and I didn’t want it protruding anywhere. It forced me to mount the seat at an angle, so it feels like you’re driving the car dog-legged, especially when you’re driving down a road. It takes a little getting used to.”
Eddie claimed he could get 58 inches of articulation out of every corner of the vehicle.
In terms of sheer ability and toughness, though, we couldn’t fault the car for the way it wound up. With nearly five feet of articulation available on any side, it was a true purpose-built beast that had the goods to go wherever Eddie wanted it to go.
#3 Warfighter Made Flyer One
Now here was a vehicle that had some unique history. Back before Desert Storm, the U.S. military was looking for a Light Strike Vehicle, or LSV for short. They had zero armor, but were remarkably fast for their time, and typically were armed with one or two machine guns.
The one here at Off Road Nights was a competitor against the vehicle that eventually won, which was in essence a two-wheel-drive sandrail built by Chenowth. Known as the Flyer, it was made by Raceco and carried four passengers while also having four-wheel-drive.
The Flyer One is based off of the Raceco Flyer, which competed against the Chenowth LSV back in the 1990s to win the U.S. military contract for a small, fast, and unarmored all-terrain vehicle. While it lost the U.S. contract, it successfully made its way to the armed forces of Israel, Greece, Australia, and others.
“These vehicles lost to Chenowth here in the States, but they won contracts overseas, so they made about 250 of them,” explained Mike Shatynski, a retired rear admiral and associate to Warfighter Made, the charity that built and raced this particular Flyer in the 2015 NORRA Mexican 1000. “You could find them used in Israel, Greece, Singapore, Australia, and some others.”
This particular Flyer was the fourth one built off of the line, and went around the world as a showroom piece for a time. Then it wound up in pieces and cast off in a boneyard, before getting purchased by Shatynski and worked on at a breakneck pace for six months to get it ready for the Mexican 1000. It would eventually get 5th place in its class.
The Flyer One managed to clinch a fifth-place win in the NORRA Mexican 1000 last year.
“The Flyer uses a 2.5-liter Detroit Diesel engine, which feeds into a specially-built Wright transaxle, kludged onto an Audi 5000 three-speed automatic transmission that goes to a front power takeoff, that goes into a 1988 Chevy S-10 front differential which splits toward Nissan hardbody CV axles and spindles,” said Mike. Needless to say, it was quite a hodgepodge of a drivetrain! But it worked wonderfully nonetheless.
The Flyer One will be competing again at the next NORRA 1000, and be joined with a sister Flyer that’s currently in the works. We can’t wait to see how the team at Warfighter Made progresses, and wish them all the best of luck.
#2 Southern California Off-Road Recovery (SCOR) Rock Bouncer
Following the Flyer in the “Vehicles We Rarely See” category, we came across this rock bouncer buggy at the show. These are the kinds of 4x4s we expect to find in a Busted Knuckle video, rampaging up some tree-covered hill in Alabama or Mississippi, but now parked in the baking California sun.
The vehicle was part of Southern California Off-Road Recovery (SCOR), a group organized primarily on Facebook and centered around helping folks get out of their off-road accidents, from Cleghorn Trail all the way to the Glamis Dunes and beyond. SCOR’s Daniel Huot was on hand to give us a better understanding of the buggy and its capabilities.
The rock bouncer came from Montana, and has been in California representing SCOR for about seven months now. It will enter the King of the Hammers race in February 2017.
“One of my best friends bought it from a guy in Montana,” he said. “He wanted to be one of the only guys out here that has one. It’s got the Chevy 5.3-liter V8 and automatic transmission, uses 6.72:1 gear ratio axles front and rear with doublers, and there’s a camera on the front to help with visibility.”
Having been in California for about seven months now, the buggy has made trips to Ocotillo Wells SVRA for Tierra del Sol, as well as the Stoddard Valley OHV area near Barstow. Huot stated that the 4×4 would compete for the next King of the Hammers event, set to take place in February 2017.
The current suspension setup has Rad-Flo coilovers on the front and King coilovers on the rear, but Daniel says this is just a test bed until the crew determines what will be the best setup for competition.
#1 Mike Uva’s Blazer Crawler
When we last had the pleasure of meeting the guys at Steel Nutz Off Road, it was for an eye-opening shop tour that showed us just what skill and ingenuity mean in the off-road world here in Southern California. Getting to see the group again at Off Road Nights was just as awesome, since we got to see the owner, Mike Uva, and his outrageous Chevy Blazer turned fully-custom crawler.
“This thing started as a 1973 Chevy Blazer convertible that I drove in high school,” explained Mike. “We made it into a crawler with four seats and now it’s our shop toy.”
Mike told us the truck was built to prove to customers that they could have a leaf-sprung suspension setup and still have a comfortable ride. "It's balanced perfectly," he said.
The Chevy was originally given just an interior cage, but as with all true off-road-loving fabricators, Mike kept wanting it the vehicle to do more and more. “We’d roll it or crash it, and that kept us busy with more structural welding and after about 10 years, this is what we have.”
The heart of the beast is a 6.0-liter LS built by Turn Key Powertrain in Oceanside, California. The axles are a Dana 60 for the front, and a GM Corporate 14-bolt in the rear. Cooling is provided by the CBR radiator, and fueling comes from a FuelSafe fuel cell.
A point of pride for Mike and his team at Steel Nutz is the proficiency and cleanliness of their welding.
One thing we couldn’t help but notice was the well-done welding done to the cage. The MIG welds were very clean and were done entirely by the Steel Nutz team. “It’s a point of pride for us,” said Mike. “We’re very well-known for our welding.”
But what about weight balancing? “It’s actually balanced perfectly, it came out really well,” said Mike. “It works very well for a leaf-sprung truck, and that was one of the goals of the build: to make a leaf-sprung truck that rides and drives well, so we could show people that they could have an affordable rig and still be comfortable.”
We like how Mike thinks, and we like what everyone brought to the show this year. It was an awesome event, and a great chance for us to see how well the off-road community is blossoming. We thank Off Road Nights for inviting us out, and encourage you to check out the gallery below!
