Johnboy's Raborn Invencer

[Johnboy72]

Ok so I've been away from the site for a bit. I've been dumping money into the big oval car and selling off my collection. Then I was sucked back into the sport and began campaigning my old trusty Raborn LTO car along with trying my hands at a CW sprint car. Luckily shortly after inquiring about a replacement LTO chassis, Fred told me he would send me an Invencer to run. I was shocked as I would call myself an average racer with average skills usually running old junk.

Car came in early March.


I then placed an order with Tekin for some new goodies.


Everything was put on hold while I was conducting some field training. But near the end of March, I began to get this thing ready.
First up was trying to figure out the Delta shocks. I remember these things as a kid but never used them.

I then removed the saddle pack mounts and mounted electronics. I was going to try the saddlepack configuration but do not have saddlepacks. Our tracks are hard pack clay and I figured I'd start testing with a shorty pack taped on the left side. No cutting required!

A slight mix up on the front bumper so I told Fred not to worry. Least I could do was fab up a simple bumper and let him get back to his work. Plus I knew one of our tracks is like Bristol. So I fabricated a lexan bumper that I can easily recreate if it breaks. I was almost scared to put this car on the track because I know it's a special car. But mounted the Viper body up. Looks slick and not boxy like the modern stuff.

And I was out of paint. Nearest open hobby shop was 70 miles away. Luckily my cousin owns a vinyl shop so I stole some scraps!

[GoMachV]

Bad ass ride John, love the '57 paint theme. Someone should pop the Dragonslayer body it's my new favorite late model

[Johnboy72]

I honestly was considering that body for my Prostock. There is even a guy here in NY that picked two up awhile back and has one for sale. Would save me the trip to Michigan or wherever that guy is that makes that body.

Ok, just like Johnny Cash's Cadillac, my plan went well until I tried to put it all together. lol. There was something unique on my car in the rear bulkheads. They were much deeper rearward than the rest. This all went unnoticed up until I tried to put gears on the car (morning of the races neither the less). Using the stock spur (with metric bearing), I couldn't get anything smaller than a 23t pinion. The motor can was hitting the rear camber link. With the race a night earlier thanks to Easter, I contacted Fred in the morning and we discussed all the way up until it was time to load up. It was frustrating because we didn't realize at the time my bulkheads were different. So I loaded up and headed to the track.

So completely over geared and had absolutely no brakes. Also, running my sprint car with extreme rear steer was affecting my driving with the Invencer. But somehow I managed to sneak a heat race win in. Main only had three cars that night and I took second. Just didn't have that punch I needed.
But Fred being Fred, he must have spent some time thinking because the next morning (Easter Sunday) I started receiving pictures and updates for the car. Seems he came up with an update. This update was a game changer. It allowed me to relocate the rear camber links. This allowed me to move the motor back almost to the point the shaft would touch the spur gear. Two more bonuses was the use of TC shocks and the kickup adjustments are even easier to make now.

I have yet to move the rear camber links more parallel with the driveshafts!

New TC3 shocks mounted. Camber ballstud now on rear shock tower.

MUCH GOODER!!!!
So had to wait and see what this upgrade would do.

Fast forward to Apr 3rd, and it was race day.


Another weak turn out at the indoor track (not sure why) so they added our two SB Late Models with the BB Late Models. So basically the Medium Class with the Expert Class. I would really have to see what this thing would do against the big boys!!! Results?

CLEAN SWEEP!!! Swept both heats and main. On a sidenote, my buddy's BB LM was having some interference with my car. We are not sure why. I'm not sure if it would have matter (nothing against his driving ability) as the Invencer was hooked up. I even handed the controller over to 4-5 people and they were all impressed with the car!

[Johnboy72]

Missed 10 APR 16's race but good news is the weather is finally shaping up. So this weekend we'll be putting in a lot of work to get the outdoor track ready. I'm also hoping to begin testing with a full pack and large side wing!

So all caught up and I'll update this as we go. Looks like I'm stuck with RC!!!

[SLIDER]

Are you going to be running rubber tires on the outdoor track?

[klavy69]

Awesome car! Once again I want to run the oval Johnboy72...everytime I see one of your builds/threads it makes me want to pull out something just to run oval with

Todd

[Johnboy72]

As far as rubber tires, I just power troweled the track. Foams and rubber both work well. Hope to start testing soon!

[Johnboy72]

Still working the track. Car is covered in mud. Agh.

[fredswain]

On hard pack where 2.2 offroad style tires aren't run, the Invencer with the new updates is absolutely a modern car stunner. I'm working on a 2.2 solution for dirt tracks that run them btw. A new dirt oval is going to open here again soon so Barry Raborn and I will both be testing. It'll be cool to see him back out on a track again. He'll absolutely destroy me! We are selling the cars again so if anyone wants to get back into dirt oval, you can save anywhere from 30% to 50% over a Custom Works car by running ours!