Plug "N" Play, Details - The Gods are in the details - Competition - Racing and Rock Crawling
Plug "N" Play, DetailsThe Gods are in the details
Publish date: Nov 1, 2008
By:  Marty Fiolka
Source: Dirt Sports
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FINALLY HOME: The entire concept behind Project Plug 'n' Play was to lower costs by assembling our Alumi Craft chassis ourselves. Thanks to off-road veteran Paul Perrizo, we have a great home shop to get this car to the finish line. Perrizo will be lending his insight and experience to make sure it's done right.
As we so eloquently pointed out in the last issue of Dirt Sports (if we can be so bold), veteran racers know that if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done. And while we aren't exactly at the "last minute" in terms of racing time, with just a little under two months left on the countdown to the Baja 2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the pressure of completing our new Project Plug 'n' Play Alumi Craft is now being felt by everyone involved in making it all come together.


STAYING CURVY: While adding a roof rack was a practical necessity, we were hesitant to ruin the stylishly curved roof that distinguishes the new Alumi Craft's chassis. Speed Unlimited suggested a rack that followed the same radius. Using a mixture of 1-inch chromoly, stamped plate and expanded metal, Speed Unlimited fabricators Johnny Evans and Andy Petersen came up with this beauty. A quartet of new PIAA HID lights were added to the front using a trick mount system that allows the entire rack to be folded backward to protect the lenses when not in use.
We are determined to pre-run this year's course in style, and do it after having enough time to double check every nut and bolt, and have time to do some all-important testing and suspension tuning before heading south of the border. Like all good projects – especially one as complex as this one – we are still behind the curve, but a couple of things are working strongly in our favor. One is the fact that after weeks of staring like enamored paparazzi at a Britney Spears concert over every inch of our Alumi Craft, the chassis and its components are even more thought out than we first realized. The second discovery lay in the fact that our original concept behind this build was, in fact, a sound one – anyone with some level of mechanical knowledge, combined with truly world-class, off-the-shelf, "plug 'n' play" parts, can actually put one of these cutting-edge cars together on his or her own.

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About the Author

Marty Fiolka


A lifelong enthusiast of off-road motorsports, Marty Fiolka raced his first SCORE Baja 1000 in 1992. A graduate of the California University at Long Beach, he formed the Rennsport Marketing Group in 1995 and executed public relations programs for Nissan, Infiniti, Exxon, Mitsubishi, and SCORE International. Now an eight-time Baja 1000 competitor and desert racing veteran, Fiolka is the associate producer of Dana Brown's Baja documentary, Dust to Glory, the author of the recently released coffee-table Baja 1000 history book 1000 Miles to Glory. Articles by Marty Fiolka

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Source: Dirt Sports, 11/1/2008
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