The world of Icelandic Formula Off-Road racing is pretty awesome. The rigs that they build are full tube chassis jobs often with big blocks sporting nitrous. Turbos are now making their presence felt and of course there are the guys who run the real flyweight stuff that get powered by turbocharged four banger engines and the like. Paddle tires and wheel speed as well as the knowledge of exactly when and how to lace the throttle is what makes these guys successful. Of course the bombproof components holding their rigs together don’t hurt either.
The axles are all braced to kingdom come and the motors have to have some really gnarly oiling systems employed to keep them happy at the angles that these trucks operate. Chassis-wise the trucks seem to be an interesting cross between rock bouncer and desert racer. The drivers seem to embody a pretty fearless spirit and perhaps one of the reasons is that at the majority of the places we have seen these rigs race, they “crash” into pretty soft volcanic sand. That’s a departure from the rock bouncing guys that have oak trees and boulders as their catch net. Yikes.
The ability that these trucks have to scale vertical stuff and “kick” their way over the top never gets old to watch. There are a couple of close calls with trucks jumping straight up but managing to get over the top and a couple of guys that had to take an extra swing at it to make it over the top. Backing down that cliff must have induced at least a little pucker factor. We’d be screaming like an 11-year old girl for the entire ride.
This looks like a fun deal and we’d still love to check out this action in person…from the sidelines…with beer.
