There are those of us content to kick back on a weekend, tune in to the latest and greatest in armchair "sports", and watch life pass us by. Then there are the adrenaline junkies; dedicated to the cause of passing life by - usually at over 100 MPH!

Johnny Phillips falls into the later category. A Motocross racer at the ripe old age of 8, Phillips went on to win several events, including the ADRA "Gila Bend 150". Next up was a stint on 4 wheels, where he achieved the status of IGBA Western National Champion in Karts.

Phillips switched to more liquid pursuits in 1995, and became California state novice champ, and set (and currently holds) the world record in the personal watercraft "1200 runabout" class. For many, that would be a full career, but Johnny wasn't finished by a longshot. The siren song of the desert pulled him back into off-road competition in the SCORE desert series.

The result?

• First off-road race SCORE 1996 Parker 400 (class 10)
• First win 1997 SCORE San Felipe 250 (5th overall)
• Won 1998 SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge
• Won 1998 SCORE Baja 500

And counting....For a man who likes his pleasures "Fast & Rough", he seems to have found his nitch.

1st Class Class 1

JP's latest ride is a brand spankin' Jimco 2000 Class 1 desert buggy weighing in at 1900 lbs, with a 122 in. wheelbase. The single seat 2000 series is the "next gen" chassis from Jimco, and able to run in Class 10 or 1 depending on its configuration.

Up front, the Jimco is equipped with Hiem joint articulated boxed steel A arms, featuring 21 inches of travel. Bilstien Coilover and Bypass shocks control the movement of the 7x15 BF Goodrich rubber

Steering comes from a Rack & Pinion unit, with a boost from a power assist hydraulic ram. Tie rods are chro-moly units, featuring Hiem joints at both ends, for the ultimate in bind free travel and reliability. Outboard of the spindles, billet hubs, calipers & rotors put the "woah" to the car, compliments of Johnny's company, NGM.

In the rear, There's a pair of massive boxed steel control arms, whose weight defies their enormous size. Constructed of .095 and .060 chro-moly steel plate, the beefy units weigh in at a mere 22 lbs. apiece. The arms unrestricted articulation comes, as in front, from spherical ball joints.

Suspending the rear of the Jimco are a second set of coilover Bilstien shocks, with an adjustable assist from a pair of Bilstien Bypass units. Cooling the big Bil's is the job of massive 3 in. reservoirs, attached to the shocks via "blue" aircraft line and "AN" fittings. Dual rate coil springs allow for a supple action in the initial few inches of travel, building steadily throughout it's 22 inches of movement.

Rounding out the rear suspension, NGM hubs, calipers and rotors, are bolted to polished aluminum rims, and racers choice BF Goodrich 35x12.5x15 Baja T/A radials.

Motivational Speaking

The Jimco's throaty growl comes from a new Fat Type 4 Porsche engine, displacing 3000cc. The 105mm bore and 88mm stroke result in a highly oversquare engine, capable of putting a serious bend on the tach needle. The forged Scat crankshaft and Pauter rods are top of the line items, further massaged by the boys at Fat Performance, boosting reliability, and increasing the big 4 cyl's performance.

Up top, a pair of 48mm DelOttro carbs feed the mill a steady diet of race gas through massaged aluminum intake manifolds. As you can imagine, mileage is not one of this car's strong points. The enormous amounts of fuel the Type 4 digests is matched only by its air intake, which is filtered through a pair of K&N filters, wrapped in foam outer filters.

While cam specs remain under wraps, we can tell you that the car puts out over 225 hp on the dyno, and in a 1900 lb. car, that works out to a power to weight ratio of 8.4 lbs. per HP! That boys & girls, equates to one wild ride.

Being a Type 4, the Porsche engine is air cooled, and the heat of the desert, combined with the added heat generated by the plethora of performance "enhancements" call for some extreme forms of cooling. The oil cooler (shown left - 4th from bottom), is a fan cooled unit, and larger than the radiators in most mid size cars. Adding to the car's cooling capacity is an "upright", Porsche 911 fan, mounted to a custom fiberglass shroud. The 911 fan provides more than twice the capacity of a stock type 4, and has become standard equipment on Class 1 VW / Porsche air cooled engines.

Transferring the abundant power to the ground is the job of a Fortin 5 speed tranny, Sway A Way axles, and Porsche CV joints. The nearly bulletproof combination is capable of surviving the brutal torque loads and angularity a Class 1 car can generate, and is among the most popular combination in the desert today.

Classy Chassis

Jimco head honcho Mike Julson needed to pull out all the stops to improve on it's previous Class 1 / 10 offering that has seen great success in the desert wars. A successful racer himself, Julson knows what works, what doesn't, and what needed to be done to improve the breed. The lessons learned on the "old" car were incorporated into the new "2000" series.

The first thing you notice when the carbon fiber / aluminum body panels come off, is that there's not a whole lot of car there. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The frame design is heavily triangulated, and as such, doesn't rely on unnecessary bracing. The result is an extremely strong, extremely light chassis that's poised to make it's mark on the world of off-road motorsports.

Despite it's minimalist design, there remains a suprising amount of room available for a single seat car. A place for everything, and everything in it's place leaves a "snug but comfortable" driving environment for Phillips near 6 foot frame. Tucked neatly in the chro-moly confines are a Parker Pumper fresh air system, full compliment of gauges, Jamar shifter, 5 point harness, PCI radio, and suspension seat, providing the necessities for racing in a modern desert environment.

Makin' it Pretty

Topping the whole package off is a top of the line paint job from the wizards at Wally World, laid over an aluminum and carbon fiber body. Wally World made the best use of the carbon fiber, working it's natural beauty into the car's striping scheme.

What??? Take a several thousand dollar paint job out onto a race course? a "Desert" race course? Crazy? Perhaps, but one thing's for sure, Johnny's new toy looks every bit as well as it runs... and thats damn good!

Gotta' love them sponsors!

From Johnny Phillips...

"I have got to thank everyone at Bilstein Shocks for their support, BFGoodrich and all the guys at Jimco and of course our prep guys at Geiser Brothers as well as the many people that help us at the races. Thanks guys!"

With one quick shakedown run, and one race under it's belt, the NGM car still has a couple bugs to work out of the system, but that's par for the course for any new race vehicle. According to Johnny, the car is a solid unit that will only improve with a bit of tweaking. Now if he can just keep that stupid dog of his to quit whizzing on the tires......

Want to learn more about Johnny's Jimco? check out his website @

http://johnny.ngm.net/