Season 2, Episode 81, Have You Heard? Brad Lovell take Lightning on a 100MPH ride in the Bronco DR race truck

 

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Jay “Lightning” Tilles (0s):

Hey, Holman, Have, You Heard.

Sean P. Holman (2s):

I am sure I have possibly.

Recording (9s):

Those

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9s):

Are the sweet, sweet sounds of your man. Lightning sitting copilot with Brad level going over 100 miles per hour through the Southern California desert in a Bronco Desert Racer

Recording (23s):

The truck show. We’re gonna show you what we know. We’re gonna answer What? The truck. Because truck Rods. with The truck show. We have the lifted We. have the lowered and everything in between. We’ll talk about trucks that run on diesel and the ones that run on gasoline. The truck show, The truck show, The truck show. Whoa Whoa.

Intro (54s):

It’s The truck show with your hosts Lightning and Holman.

Sean P. Holman (60s):

This episode of The Truck Show Podcast Have You Heard is proudly presented by Nissan with the Frontier Titan and Titan Xd. Nissan has a truck for every need, along with the legendary Nissan durability. Test Drive. your next truck at a local Nissan dealer today, Or point your browser to Nissan usa dot com where you can use the build and price tool to configure a Nissan truck that fits your lifestyle.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 20s):

And when you’re thinking about adding power or improving fuel economy, Banks has over 65 years of experience Whether. It’s cold air intakes or exhaust systems tuning, throttle control charge, air cooling, lubrication components, and much more. No one offers smarter, safer, 50 state emissions compliant performance parts than Gale Banks. You’ll find the best engineered parts for your truck at banks power dot com. And

Sean P. Holman (1m 43s):

When you’re looking for quality full synthetic lubrication for your truck, AMS oil has you covered with motor oil lubricants and protectants grease additives and more. AMS oil, synthetic lubricants deliver wear protection, engine cleanliness and fuel efficiency that conventional oils simply can’t match. Find out how AMS oil synthetic lubricants can save you money and time by helping your vehicles run better and last longer than with conventional oils at AMS oil dot com. When it comes to lubrication, AMS oil is the leader in synthetics.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 13s):

Alright, a Holman. I know that you’ve done a lot of off-Road racing. Me, not as much. I’ve done one lap in the mid 400 in an old like 2008 straight axle Ram 2,500. That

Sean P. Holman (2m 24s):

Was the one that caused you to be two inches shorter.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 27s):

Yes, it did compress my spine. Super, super fun. That was a great time. And so when our friends over at Azo called and said, Hey, are you guys free? Do you want to go out to Johnson Valley and do a couple test runs with our man Brad Lovell? And we

Sean P. Holman (2m 41s):

Went, no, he’s our man. Brad Lovell,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 44s):

He kind of is our man. And

Sean P. Holman (2m 45s):

Then Ford One, no, he’s our man,

Recording (2m 46s):

Brad

Sean P. Holman (2m 47s):

Lovell.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 48s):

So obviously I said yes. Holman was Alpha, Galvan round. You were in like Moab or somewhere. Right? I drove out to Johnson Valley and put on my fire suit and borrowed a super sweaty helmet from another dude. ’cause my Parker Pumper didn’t fit on their thing. And so that was kind of gross, but everything else was freaking awesome. Sounds

Brad Lovell (3m 7s):

Super

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 7s):

Gross.

Sean P. Holman (3m 7s):

Everything else was

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 8s):

Awesome. And I hopped in a $400,000 Bronco that is like a trophy truck.

Sean P. Holman (3m 14s):

I saw one of those $400,000 Broncos in Moab.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 18s):

Did you really?

Sean P. Holman (3m 18s):

Yeah. They put everything on it to keep it from breaking on the trail.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 22s):

See what you did there. I

Sean P. Holman (3m 24s):

Mad respect all the Bronco people. I just, I I couldn’t help myself. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 28s):

I’m coming to you from the beautiful Southern California desert, specifically Johnson Valley. I’m about 75 miles, I think, southeast ish of Los Angeles in an area called Johnson Valley. Johnson Valley is the home of King of the Hammers. It’s also home to Brad Level’s office in the middle of nowhere off a dirt road. Sits a few RVs, a few sea containers, a corrugated steel building, two stories with a bunch of bay doors open and Ford Broncos lined up.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 9s):

And there’s Brad. I found the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Brad Lovell. So tell me about this facility. We are standing in a, in a building in the middle of nowhere and This Is, like if you could have a convenient piece of property for off-road racing in the Southern California desert, this would be it.

Brad Lovell (4m 29s):

Yeah, exactly. We’re we’re at a building out here that we use for testing out in the desert in Johnson Valley here. And Johnson Valley is really near and dear to the Bronco brand. It’s where the base Bronco has been validated and gone through durability testing. So Badlands Wild Track has been validated out here on the rocks and washes and sand in Johnson Valley.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (4m 53s):

Are you validating parts that I can buy at a Ford dealer or are you, are you trying to break them? Are you saying that they’ll go 180,000 miles? Like what is that quote unquote validation that you’re out here, you’re beating on these Broncos, so I won’t break things essentially. Yeah,

Brad Lovell (5m 9s):

I, I guess that’s the, that’s it in a nutshell. You know, we’re really trying to push the Broncos hard and we’re simulating a lifetime of off-roading for an enthusiast customer. You know, somebody who’s really gonna go out and push their Bronco hard and, you know, we wanna make sure that nothing’s gonna break, just like you’re saying. So we, we take it pretty seriously and they let me get away with running a pretty fast pace out there. And there could be so many things that are worse to do in a day than be out here running lap after laugh in a Bronco.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 40s):

Now how many miles have you run so far this last two weeks? Well,

Brad Lovell (5m 43s):

This, this last test, you know, we’ve been doing a variety of things, but you know, we put on, we count ’em in thousands of miles out here, not hundreds of miles. So we pick up a lot of different information, some of it on different trucks, but definitely, you know, we’re taking one truck and really running it through the durability cycle. And we’re doing the same thing on the Bronco dr the customer race vehicle that Ford has developed with Multimatic. So the, the test vehicle for that, we did a little over 2000 miles out here in Johnson Valley. And the idea there is to simulate a Baja 1000 and make sure that you can get to the finish line without breaking anything.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 21s):

So are you running data loggers and thermocouples and pressure sensors and the whole thing? Or are you just like, how are you capturing this data?

Brad Lovell (6m 28s):

Yeah, you know, with, with the Bronco Dr, the ones that you can buy, they have a ton of data on ’em. Sometimes we’re running more on the test vehicles based on need, you know, I think we’ve run thermocouples on the shocks and those will come off if heat isn’t a problem. So we haven’t seen heat be a problem on the Bronco, dr. But I

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 48s):

Mean, are you counting things like how many times the shocks go up and down a stroke, like those type of things?

Brad Lovell (6m 53s):

So yes, there is more intensive data collection that goes on that would count cycles of suspension, strain on different parts, stuff like that. So certainly Ford and other OEMs or wizards with that stuff,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 8s):

This, Is, not the stuff that happens in Detroit where they’ve got basically a lab setting and they’re stroking a shock certain amount, number of times to see when it heats up and fails, you’re going over rocks more, more the way that a consumer would.

Brad Lovell (7m 22s):

So Ford can do a lot of work with, with simulation as, as well as other OEMs and, and the rest of the mechanical design industry. But there’s always a desire to tie that back to real world use and that takes quite an investment. And Ford is, they’re willing to make it with their enthusiast level products, you know, Badlands, Bronco Wild track, the Raptor products, everything is validated out here in the desert to make sure that they’re not missing anything in simulation and design back in Detroit.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 55s):

Gotcha. So you are, you’re checking chassis, you’re checking steering joints, any, all that, right?

Brad Lovell (8m 2s):

Well, you know, it’s easy to pick off the, the low hanging fruit and say, well you’re gonna break a shock out here. Right. Or you’re

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 8s):

Gonna, or are you finding, or are you finding like the, the stereo components come apart, like a kn broke off, things like that?

Brad Lovell (8m 14s):

It’s, it’s everything between a stereo knob and breaking an axle shaft, let’s say. But you know, things are really refined in the design process and a lot of times the stuff we find are boring things to you and me like, oh, bolt loss torque or something on the, on the back of the stereo, don don’t know. But certainly we’re watching as test drivers and calling out any sort of anomaly we see like that, you know, a new rattle malfunction in the, the cluster, the information that you’re getting inside the vehicle. We’re calling out all that stuff. Yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (8m 43s):

You just brought up, I didn’t even think about the, was it NVH you’re finding out after 2000 miles of beating on a Bronco, you’ve got a strut or something that’s starting to make noise or a something’s making contact to the exhaust with the body or something that you didn’t expect with heat expansion and just work.

Brad Lovell (9m 2s):

Sure. So, so it’s all, it’s all kinds of stuff like that and it’s, it’s a very refined process where a lot of inspections and stuff like that going on. And then, you know, we get out here with a race truck on a day like today and we can be a little bit more free and, and footloose and go out there and, and pounce some whoops. And, and have some fun.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (9m 22s):

Take me through what you’re testing out here today specifically. What are we gonna be going in later?

Brad Lovell (9m 27s):

Well, what we’re doing today is running the Bronco dr and that’s, you know, the consumer race car for Ford that’s designed for the Baja 1000 for Baja races. So we’re getting ready for an upcoming race. We’ve done our last validations on The truck. So it’s a shakedown, it’s getting seat time, it’s getting all the communication working, putting a star link on it. We’re gonna have live streaming video during the race, which I’m pretty excited about. So we’re adding a lot of different stuff there and This Is our last chance to get it all validated, then we’ll go back and prep the vehicle and head down to Mexico. Got

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (10m 3s):

It. Since you started racing, how far advanced have these trucks become, just generally speaking from the first forge that you raced way back when You were a teenager to now, like how, how many miles an hour faster are you able to go over the same terrain?

Brad Lovell (10m 19s):

Well it’s, it’s absolutely night and day where the technology has come in the last 10 or 15 years. I, I’ve been a Ford fanatic my whole life and, you know, late eighties, early nineties is kind of when I got into it all. And you had to modify anything to go off road, you know, ranger Bronco two, we had full-size Broncos, we had all that stuff and it took a bunch of modification. What I see now is the capability built into these vehicles right off the showroom floor and then the validation on top of that. So, you know, you can go run that thing super hard and you’re not gonna break it. That’s what really a amazes me and it just blows my mind when we go down to Baja and you know, we’re not getting our doors blown off by razors or other pre runners.

Brad Lovell (11m 8s):

We’re pre-run with ’em and then you pull off on the pavement, put it in normal mode and it feels just, you know, tight and nice and ready to go to work the next day.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 16s):

How far have you seen the Bronco come, like go back to the early Broncos to today? Like what a night and day difference?

Brad Lovell (11m 22s):

Yeah, for sure. You know, we have a classic 68 Bronco that we race and I love that thing. I love it. But the thing is, it’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 29s):

Every squeak and rattle and

Brad Lovell (11m 30s):

Oh yeah, it’s, it’s got character, it’s got a carburetor, it’s got leaf springs in the back. It’s rough. I love the style, I love the challenge of racing it, but you know, the stuff that is the, that Ford’s building today, that’s, you know, just off the showroom floor, go out and go fast down one of these tracks out here in Johnson Valley and see what the suspension can do. It’s, it’s amazing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (11m 52s):

Okay. Alright. So looking at the Dr over here by the way, it’s just, just the stance is menacing. What is your favorite part of the dr or, or let me, let me rephrase it. What’s something on the dr that Ford baked into it that you are surprised that you’re like, whoa, they’re gonna do that really? Okay.

Brad Lovell (12m 10s):

You know, I, I think Ford deserves a lot of credit for building an out of the box ready to race Baja 1000 Bronco. But what really surprises me about it that they have the gumption to do, and that’s put a five liter V eight in that thing and it sounds great. It goes plenty fast. There’s lots of low end torque there to really control the chassis and bounce over Whoops. And, and play around with it in the turns. So that’s combined to a 10 speed transmission and there’s a lot of power there and you know, a lot of, a lot of speed and, and the 10 speed transmission is great ’cause you can always stay in the power band. It’s well

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (12m 45s):

Balanced. Yeah.

Brad Lovell (12m 46s):

So we’ve worked a lot on the balance through the development of the vehicle. So yeah, you’ll find when we’re hitting, whoops, you know, it flies flat, it doesn’t kick. There’s great control in it, so you can hit whoops in the turn, stay planted. It’s, it’s very sporty. It’s,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 1s):

I wish you guys could see the smile on his face. I’m not even sure This Is like, it, it’s like a kid candy. Like he gets to live his dream every day. It’s, it’s awesome. Yeah,

Brad Lovell (13m 10s):

Absolutely. You know, I I I love doing these test trips and, and being part of the development of Bronco and making it as best as it can be.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (13m 17s):

Tell me about this logo blasted on your chest right here. Giant A-M-S-O-I-L Amsoil. So I got, I got a call from our friend Holly, and she’s like, Hey, do you have any interest in going to ride out in the desert with Brad? And, and I said, what? Yes. Tell me about your relationship with AMS oil because my relationship through banks is incredible. They’re incredibly supportive. Anything we want to try chemical compositions, we are on the phone with Mark. What’s up Mark? He’s probably listening. One of the heads of engineering, if I have a question, the other companies way back when we were developing our rammy rear differential covers, we were trying to find out when 75 w 90 in certain formulations would oxidize when it would burn.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (14m 2s):

Like what temperature do I need to get the rear diff fluid in our truck that we were testing to get it to decompose, get so hot that it, it starts losing its lubricity. No one would share all the big companies that you, when You go to O’Reilly or Craig, you walk in the door, you’d see all those names. None of those companies would share any data I called AM Amazon and they said, oh, This Is this temperature at which it’ll break down. Here’s what it does. They shared all the data. They were an open book and I thought This Is amazing. So we partnered with them. Where I’m going with This Is, I’m, I’m wondering if it’s the same way with you on the racing side. Tell me your perspective.

Brad Lovell (14m 38s):

Well, certainly, you know, we have a deep appreciation for AMS oil and I I do believe like you’re saying, they’re a small enough, nimble enough company that they can make changes, they can make new formulations, they’re willing to listen to find the best product for be it racing industry, all, all kinds of different solutions. But really, there are two things that I value so much about AMS oil, it’s so hard to find these days. And the first one is just dedication to quality. You know, they’re not a marketing company looking to maximize profit. They’re a focus company wanting to have the best quality product and let it speak for itself.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (15m 18s):

I mean, at the end of the day, they’re owned by a family. Like, it’s just like where I work, we’re owned by Gale Banks, they’re owned by the sios and it’s the family, it’s their name, it’s their reputation on the line. Every single bottle that goes out the door, that’s theirs. Yeah. That’s an extension of the family. Right.

Brad Lovell (15m 35s):

Right. And and that, that kind of brings me to the second thing that we appreciate so much about AMS oil and it’s the, the long-term dedication, the ethics, the quality of business. It, it’s definitely a family company and I I really appreciate the business ethics there. And it, it really should be a model to everybody, their commitment to the dealer network and to all the people who are, who are using AMS oil. Yeah. And, and that ties back in to quality, you know, the two go hand in hand, but the brand value and the trust in AMS oil pretty much to me is off the charts. Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 13s):

So what’s next? Do we, do I have to suit up? What am I doing?

Brad Lovell (16m 16s):

Yeah, so pretty much we’re gonna get you put up in a fire suit here. Helmet on.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 21s):

I got one. It’s, it’s, I’m not gonna say it’s, it’s old. I got a nice one, but I think I put on some pounds. So it’s gonna look like Yeah. Like I’m popping outta my wrapper here. You know what I’m saying? But I do have a, do we need helmets as well?

Brad Lovell (16m 33s):

Yeah. So we’ll be helmets, neck restraints, you know, the full kit and we’ll go out there. We’ll have, you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 37s):

Don’t have Par Parker pumpers in these things, do you? Oh yeah.

Brad Lovell (16m 39s):

Oh yeah. So, so we’ll have pumper communication. We’ll we have a Garmin GPS system in there, which will show us where our chase trucks are and our support crew. So we’ll go out and make sure those guys are in place and then burn a hot lap out there.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 54s):

Damn. All right. I’m in.

Brad Lovell (16m 55s):

Alright, well let’s go do it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (16m 59s):

Alright, well This, Is gonna be interesting. We’ve got comms, we’re in the, the Dr and I can barely look left because I’ve got a head restraint on here. I can see Brad outta the corner of my eye in the driver’s seat and he’s got a big low end screen in front of him. And I have a, an equally large one in front of me. It looks like GPS ’cause I’ve got a antenna poking out of the top left corner and he’s got a big motech display in the center. I don’t see a CD player. That’s a problem.

Brad Lovell (17m 25s):

Yeah. So no CD player in here. And yeah, it’s pretty restrictive. A lot of safety around off-road racing for sure. You know, so neck restraints, helmets, window nets, all that business. But really we’re, we’re concerned is out the front window.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 38s):

Do I need to do any navigating? I I do have a little experience on the, the Mint 400. I was a navigator for one lap. Okay,

Brad Lovell (17m 45s):

Well it, it certainly is an art to, to read the GPS, but yeah, we’re gonna be following the blue line around there. We got a heck of a course set up some high speed stuff, some Baja stuff. So yeah, keep an eye on it. Call the turns.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (17m 59s):

I’m not, I’m gonna just go for a ride.

Brad Lovell (18m 2s):

All

6 (18m 2s):

Right, let’s get to it. All

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 10s):

That exhaust note never

6 (18m 11s):

Gets old. I love it. It’s one of the best things about The truck is the exhaust. Okay. So we’re gonna get turned and I’m in place code. We’re gonna get turned around here and run out of the gate. We’re gonna head down Pony Road. Wow. The turning radius in This Is pretty amazing. Yeah, it’s not bad. You know, you wanna optimize everything you can for the desert. Okay, we’ll get some,

8 (18m 48s):

All right, our lid is down. I’m gonna try to avoid the, the wind by putting the phone, listen

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (18m 55s):

To that exhaust. Oh, that’s amazing. Okay. So holy mackerel, a hundred miles an hour through the desert. I I was not able to record much of it because the wind noise was so insane, but I can’t believe this. So the only time I’ve been that fast offroad, well not, I’ve never been that fast offroad.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (19m 36s):

I was on the Mint 400 in a 2008 Ram 2,500 solid axle. Okay. And got the snot beat out of me. It was fun. But don don’t think we really ever got over like 60 something. This was doing a hundred no problem. On the way back I asked you, I thought, Hey, how are they gonna outfit this truck when it goes to consumers? Because you’ve got a motech, a motech screen here, all the race equipment in here. And you said, oh no, This Is, how it’s coming from Ford performance.

Brad Lovell (20m 9s):

It’s a pretty serious weapon, I’ll tell you that. It’s, it’s definitely a big boy truck and you can go plenty fast out there off road, which is why I love it. I love every day I get to drive this thing. But yeah, what we’re sitting in is how Bronco Dr Comes outfit from Multimatic forward performance. You know, Motech, we have a keypad here. I think the, the VHF radio’s an option, but obviously it’s something you’re gonna want in the off-road environment. Intercom m sat or sat phone, G pss, you know, that’s all the equipment. We got lights

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 42s):

Again, it comes with the cage. Everything. The way we’re sitting in it right now is how it ships.

Brad Lovell (20m 47s):

Yeah. This Is as delivered from Multimatic. So This Is a customer race car that we’re sitting in right here. So, and, and I am the, the lucky guy who gets to drive it. I’m not telling you who the owner is, but Oh really? He’s letting me drive it. It

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 1s):

It’s owned by a consumer or racer.

Brad Lovell (21m 4s):

I’m not letting you know. No,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 5s):

Come on. Seriously. Here, let me hit pause. Tell

Brad Lovell (21m 9s):

Me now. Hey, all that matters is I’m the one who gets to drive it all right? That’s, that’s,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 12s):

That’s true. Okay. When we went through the, whoops, how are you judging? I know you’ve done thousands of miles and it’s been your whole career, right? But how are you judging the speed at which you can hit the jumps based on the vehicle? Because like, again, imagine yourself in a solid axle, not much suspension, the speed at which you’re hitting things and the angle at which you’re hitting things is totally different than in this Bronco Dr

Brad Lovell (21m 38s):

Yeah. So what, what you’re talking about is the art of desert racing. It’s terrain reading. It’s judging the capability of vehicle you’re in and looking at the terrain around you. So a lot of that, I’m just wide open. I’m using every bit of available power we have. And honestly, that’s where you wanna be in a race car because o off road, because that means everything else is working great. And now your problem is you just need more power. That doesn’t often happen. That’s where we’re at with this truck usually, you know, you’re limited by suspension, you’re limited by brakes, you’re limited by sometimes what you can see. And it, hey, it’s the size of the bumps. There are bumps down in Baja where the best trophy trucks have to slow down forward.

Brad Lovell (22m 19s):

But that’s the art. What can I make it through? What do I have to check up for? How do I have to balance the vehicle going over it?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 26s):

Okay. And there’s no way anyone could just get in a vehicle pre-run once and know it. This Is you years and years and years, right?

Brad Lovell (22m 33s):

Well, yeah. You know, it takes seat time. But I, I’m, I’m a big advocate that people can start at any level and enjoy it. I’m a big fan of starting at the bottom and work your way up through different classes, different adventures. Some people, you know, they got a pile of money, they go buy a trophy truck, which is the funnest thing in the world to drive by the way. But you don’t get the adventure to get up to that level.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (22m 56s):

Okay. And where would you recommend one of our listeners start if they’ve got, let’s say for example they have a raptor and it’s mainly street, but they’re like, you know what, I feel like a poser. I need to take this off road in adventure. What’s the first step for someone that has that phenomenal tool? Or maybe, maybe they don’t, maybe they have a ranger, they have something that’s a little less capable but still built for off-road. Where do they start?

Brad Lovell (23m 22s):

The first, where you have to start is with a sense of adventure to get out there and try and experience it and see what it’s about. Then you’ll know what you need next. Maybe it’s bigger tires. No,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (23m 32s):

But I’m saying do you go get a coach? Do you, like how do you, what if you don’t have that network? Yeah. You’re in Southern California right now. I know you’re from Colorado, but what if you’re, what if you live in Tennessee, you’re up in Oregon. Like who do you, where do you even go? Do you go online? Do you, you join a group? Like what do you think you would do in that circumstance where you don’t have the resources that you or I do

Brad Lovell (23m 52s):

So it. It certainly seems to me that off roaders are a tight-knit group and great people that want to help each other out. Now how I started 20, 30 years ago is with my family, my brother, my cousin, you know, just like-minded people. We went out and did stuff. I think today, you know, there are clubs, there still are clubs, but it’s so easy to get involved with today with just finding like-minded people online on Facebook. Definitely the Bronco community is super strong. People organizing rides, whether they’re official or unofficial. But people want to get together and see what other people are doing with Broncos to test their skill. And really when You get a group of two or three people together that are kind of like, at that same skill level, then you go out and start doing trails and find harder trails.

Brad Lovell (24m 35s):

And, and that has been the funnest part of my whole career driving off road is that sense of adventure and what’s the next hardest thing we can do and get there. And it’s exciting for me. My boys are doing that now. One of ’em is out in Moab. He watered up all his junk in one of the hot tubs, which is a bummer. But you know, he’s trying and, and that’s where you go. You try the next level. So wait

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (24m 56s):

A minute, you know, you’re not one of the guys like, oh man, that’s gonna cost me 30 grand.

Brad Lovell (24m 60s):

Well, so the thing is it’s a $700 truck, so there’s only so much to lose. But, and yeah, it’s a bummer. You don’t, you know, you don’t wanna damage your stuff and have setbacks, but it is part of off-roading and it takes forbearance and, and it’s what is the blood of off-road racers and desert people and people out here doing this stuff.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (25m 18s):

Have you ever done any like forest, like Oregon trails, things like that, and how does that differ from the desert here?

Brad Lovell (25m 25s):

You know, I’ve, I’ve spent a little bit of time up in Oregon and Washington off-roading. Certainly not at the speeds or capacity that we’re doing down here. I’ve traveled across Utah, I’ve been up to Alaska in the winter. And I really feel that there’s a different challenge in any type of different environment. And you know, what gets showcased so much is the southern California high speed desert running down in Baja. And it, it’s awesome. It’s everything that it looks, it’s that much fun. But it doesn’t mean you can’t go find something in the Midwest. You know, there’s off-road parks, there’s mud, there’s tracks. We went out to one of the funnest trips I’ve done. We went to the outer banks of South Carolina and getting to drive on the beaches and the deep sand and experiencing that.

Brad Lovell (26m 6s):

I really do believe that there’s something for people everywhere.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 9s):

Something someone said, I’m sure it’s a famous quote I’m ripping off, but it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car. Slow well,

Brad Lovell (26m 16s):

Right. Of, of course. You know. And my joy in life is finding the limit of the car I’m in. And, and to bookend that, I have a 43 Willy’s Jeep that we’ve taken on long trips from Colorado to Utah and back. But we did it because you’re finding the challenge and the capacity of that vehicle. Yeah. So that’s on one end of it. The Bronco Dr. We’re sitting in right now is the other. So yeah,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 38s):

That’s pretty awesome. So what’s really neat is that there are quite a few Ford engineers crawling all over us right now and This Is Red, I’ve never been in this situation before where we’ve just come back, they’ve collected a bunch of data and they’re literally unscrewing panels above our heads. This Is. Not just a parts you can just open on hinges. All these have fasteners that lock them in, right? Yeah.

Brad Lovell (26m 57s):

And This Is, it feels kind of a Brad’s

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 60s):

Handing a 10 millimeter wrench to a, to an engineer over here.

Brad Lovell (27m 3s):

It, it feels kind of at, at home for me. I’ve been sitting on the lift in the vehicle getting tires. They drop it down and off you go outta here because, you know, in, in, whether it’s testing or racing time is very valuable and there’s always the critical path that’s taken the longest. So people want to get their job done, get it done efficiently. That’s what makes a great team out here. We get a lot of work done in a day.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 23s):

There’s a pair of boots hanging over the windshield right now. ’cause I can only assume he’s on the deck on the lid right here.

Brad Lovell (27m 30s):

Well, right now we got, we got the whole roof coming off. We’re,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 33s):

There’s a 10 millimeter in my shirt now. Here we go.

Brad Lovell (27m 36s):

We’re we’re pulling the roof off right now to look at some of the communications equipment.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 40s):

How many 10 mils have you lost in this garage? You know,

Brad Lovell (27m 43s):

A funny story early on in the development of the 4,600 Broncos we’re running around and something’s rattling around in the bell housing and I told the guys, it’s like, it sounds like there’s a 10 millimeter socket in the bell housing. Ah, just drive through it, Brad, whatever. Well guess what, there

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (27m 58s):

Was a 10 millimeter sock in the bell Housing.

Brad Lovell (27m 60s):

Yeah, there’s a 10 mil millimeter sock in the bell housing. So that cut the day short, but got it taken outta there and continue on.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 8s):

Okay, so this Dr over here, something tells me that it’s being prepped for something more than just my chubby fat ass sitting in it going around 20 miles in the Johnson Valley. What’s it really doing out here?

Brad Lovell (28m 20s):

Well it, it’s a big exciting deal for our team, but we will be, we will be heading down to Mexico for the Nora 1000. We’re gonna race this Dr.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 29s):

Oh snap.

Brad Lovell (28m 30s):

Yeah, it’s really exciting. I think The truck is gonna be really fast down for Nora. It’s a six day rally down there. We’ve done it before in our 68. We’ve done it in Badlands, Bronco, and Wild Track Bronco now we’re doing it in Bronco. Dr. So This Is the biggest baddest Bronco that you can get down there for Baja. And that really gets me excited because I think we’re gonna be plenty fast.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (28m 50s):

Is there a time to beat? Is there, like how do you know that you’ve succeeded with this vehicle when You cross the start, the finish line?

Brad Lovell (28m 57s):

Well, we’ll be racing in the heavy metal class, which it’s plenty competitive. You know, there’s some old Class eight trucks, there’s some new class eight trucks. So we definitely have our work cut out for us. But the thing about Nora is there’s a little bit of everything out there. Vintage trophy trucks. Our desire, you know, of course we wanna win the class, but we’re looking to push as high up as we can get in the overall, we’ve done it before, you know, one year for, there are a lot of UTVs racing down there. Our Bronco was the fastest four Wheel Drive vehicle down there. So we’re going back with a four Wheel, four Wheel drive vehicle and let’s see how high we can get up this time.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 32s):

So it’s the heavy metal class you’re gonna be up against Ozzy and Mo Crewe. I don’t get it. What? What?

Brad Lovell (29m 37s):

Okay, so you’re thinking a little bit different. Heavy metal but heavy metal’s kind of a catchall for you know, is it?

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 43s):

Is it what anything over like 5,000 pounds or something or what? No,

Brad Lovell (29m 46s):

It’s like big full size trucks. Every promoter has a little bit different rule set for it. But really think, you know, a truck with a frame that’s outfit for desert racing. That’s kind of what Class eight is. And the heavy metal class in nor is kind of a catchall. They’re catching a few different classes in there. But you know what? That gives you more competition That makes it more fun.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (30m 7s):

Damn, I really thought you were gonna tell me you were racing with Ozzy.

Brad Lovell (30m 10s):

Well it, it ain’t gonna happen go faster.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (30m 12s):

I can’t do an Aussie impression, but yeah. Alright. Brad, look at the clock. You know what time it is?

Brad Lovell (30m 18s):

Oh, what time is it? Beer.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (30m 19s):

Beer. O clock my friend. Right. Beer o clock. Come on, get with it.

Brad Lovell (30m 23s):

Okay. It’s about course 30 exactly.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (30m 27s):

The Truck Show Podcast is a production of truck famous LLC. This podcast was created by Sean Holman and J Tillis with production elements by DJ Omar Kahn. If you like what you’ve heard, please open your Apple podcast or Spotify app and give us a five star rating. And if you’re a fan, there’s no better way to show your support than by patronizing our sponsors.