Jones said no. Parnelli and Bill entered the 1972 Mexican 1000 (now the Baja 1000) and led from start to finish, winning in a new record time of 14 hours 59 minutes. Copyrights © 2020 ACME Trading Co. All Rights Reserved. Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more. 58. The next year Big Oly won another Baja 1000. report. In keeping with the original gold Olympia color scheme from the original truck, American Racing made some custom wheels for Marshall sporting gold center sections. This 1971 / 2011 FORD BRONCO TROPHY TRUCK, California registered, smog exempt, "STREET LEGAL", one-off, one-of-a-kind, unlimited class, Baja 1000, Trophy Truck. The truck was, simply, one of the stars of the show. When it comes to racing trucks suspension is all-important, the Big Oly has Twin-I-Beam front suspension with radius arms that attach to the frame behind the axle beams. Oil courses through its veins via a Petersen 5 stage dry sump system. The next year in 1973 they again won the Mexican 1000, the Baja 500, and the Mint 400. What would the body look like? Real Art Replicas is pleased to offer you this hand crafted resin model of what many offroad enthusiasts consider to be the most iconic desert racing vehicle ever made. Disc brakes from Hurst/Airheart are used on all four corners and a Thunderbird steering box keeps it all pointing in the right direction. However, that’s where the similarities ended. Proving its timeless appeal, it today remains the most iconic vehicle of the sport. In the 1971 Baja 1000, Jones and Stroppe won the Ensenada-La Paz route in 14 hours and 59 minutes. Powering the beast is a 438 c.i. Production will be limited to 750 models. Drawing on his past experience shaping surfboards, Marshall designed and fabricated a fiberglass body for his Trophy Truck that pays homage to the original Bronco shape but is larger to fit the Trophy Truck-size chassis. The finished truck’s debut was at the Off Road Expo in Pomona, CA in 2009. According to legend, it was during a Christmas party that off-road racer and fabricator Bill Stroppe pressured Indy car driver Parnelli Jones into trying desert racing. Dart 351 small-block Ford engine with Yates-style aluminum heads sporting 11:1 compression. You can follow Ben on Instagram here, Twitter here, or LinkedIn here. Things would be different with Parnelli Jones. Jones won the Indy 500 in 1963, he had taken pole position and leading most of the race the year before in 1962, then lost a brake line and finished in 7th. In early November 2009, the truck was the featured vehicle in the Bilstein booth at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The project to build the Crazy Colt was already well underway when Bill Stroppe discovered the subterfuge, he was initially furious but mellowed quickly when he realized that the truck would have a fiberglass Bronco body – a feature sure to keep the folks at Ford happy. Parnelli Jones never really intended to take part in off-road racing, he had already raced on dirt tracks with sprint cars and midget cars earlier in his career before graduating to sports cars and IndyCars. The all chromoly tig welded chassis is powder coated. It’s been nearly forty years since the original ‘Big Oly’ roared onto the then-small stage of off road racing. A Powerglide 2 speed automatic transmission backed by a Gear Vendors overdrive channels the power from the engine to the rear wheels. ... Log in sign up. For the next stage of evolution, Jones dug back into his racing background and Big Oly was born. hide. Marshall also enjoyed the positive feedback he received from other racing stars at the show including Walker Evans, Robby Gordon, and Andy McMillin. Oly was a 2WD truck with a tubular frame and a fiberglass body with aluminum interior panels, a … In the days when desert trucks were built from factory stock vehicles, 1963 Indy 500 winner Jones broke Bronco driveline parts like matchsticks. This Trophy Truck has appeared in the following magazines: DirtSports Feb. 2008 and Jan. 2012 "Masterpiece in Metal", Off Road Nov. 2011, Bronco Driver Nov./Dec. The rear suspension is a four link design with a transverse panhard rod, and the rear axle is a full-floating 9″ design and a Detroit Locker differential. Jones convinced Stroppe to build a 2-wheel drive version with more beefed up fabricated parts. Horsepower tops out at 725 with 650 ft lbs of torque. Big Oly Ford Bronco Brandan Gillogly Parnelli Jones had long established his name as a sprint car, NASCAR, and Indy car driver before he ventured into off-road driving. 4.3k members in the Diecast community. Silodrome, Gasoline Culture, and the Piston/Blade Icon are registered trademarks. save. Acme Trading Company’s Real Art Replicas division proudly announces a 1:18 scale model of the Big Oly Bronco. The project was moved into the Stroppe workshop and Russell was joined by the full team, rapidly increasing the pace of work. Jones and Stroppe won the 1970 Baja 500 in a heavily-modified Ford Bronco, but Jones wanted more. Big Oly was the equivalent of the first Trophy Truck in the early 1970s, resembling the the early Ford Broncos in production at the time. As we and everyone else has told you over the years, this was a second version of a Bronco that Jones and Stroppe raced. Marshall met with Parnelli Jones in early 2007 and construction began a few months later. represents the year that Parnelli Jones won his first Baja 1000 in the famed original "Big Oly". Close. Its has been forty years, since the original "Big Oly" roared onto the then-small stage of off road racing. 39” BFG Project tires are wrapped around the custom wheels. Handcrafted with every detail from the real Big Oly, this replica captures that time in history exquisitely. Immerse yourself in the cockpit and you can almost taste the dust from the desert in your face. Big Oly is possibly the most famous off-road racing truck in American history, it was one of the first designed from the ground up for desert racing – with a tubular steel frame and a fiberglass body bolted to the outside designed to look like a Ford Bronco. He was especially hard on 4-wheel drive systems solid front axles. 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Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Contact Us. Jones discussed the idea with the best fabricator in Stroppe’s workshop – Dick Russell. The exhibit starts on the 10th of November for the general public, if you’d like to see more or get tickets you can click here. Stroppe and Jones raided the Ford parts bin to find a suitable engine, eventually settling on the 351 Windsor V8 with a Holley 650 double pumper carburetor, a Ford Cobra high-rise single plane aluminum intake manifold, an Isky racing cam, and bespoke tubular headers. He frequently drove so hard and so fast that trucks lost wheels, axles, suspension, brakes, and any other number of important oily metal pieces. The design called for a lightweight tubular TIG-welded 4130 chromoly chassis, aluminum internal body panels, and a lightweight fiberglass body that had been moulded directly from a Ford Bronco before being sectioned 3 inches and narrowed 3 inches. New comments … Marshall collected magazines with pictures of Big Oly, built several early Broncos in high school and one day dreamed of racing in the desert himself. The idea to fit the wing was Parnelli’s, he had seen the effectiveness of wings in other forms of racing and the loose tail end of the truck at speed convinced him that it needed downforce. While he enjoyed racing his pickup, Marshall had started to formulate a plan in his head to build the ultimate off road racing vehicle for himself that combined the technology of modern Trophy Trucks with an esthetic nod to the past – in particular, a tribute to his favorite off road racing vehicle of his youth – Big Oly. However, that’s where the similarities ended. Big Oly proved to be a hugely influential design that succeeded in bringing technology from the race track to the desert, ensuring that off-road racing trucks would never be the same again. Big Oly set the new standard for offroad racing and has inspired the truck builds of today. Site Powered by Gasoline and Caffeine. The first was based off of a factory frame and Big Oly was an advancement as the thing had a full tube chassis. Read more... © Silodrome 2020. all rights reserved. Madruga considered many factors before cutting one tube for the chassis. He knew from his circuit racing career that a spaceframe chassis with long-travel suspension and no front axle (rear wheel drive only) would be quicker – perhaps even quicker than the motorcycles. And thus the idea of the Big Oly Trophy Truck was born. Parnelli Jones, Marshall Madruga and PJ Jones. A C4 3-speed automatic transmission was originally used but it was upgraded to a stronger C6 soon after. The 1:18 scale Big Oly Bronco models will be released in December 2018. share. What visual cues would be incorporated into the design so that enthusiasts would recognize the lineage back to the original truck? The next year Big Oly won another Baja 1000. Typically when it comes to off-road racing, the men break before the machines. Posted by 6 months ago. The dominance of the truck led to an arms race in the world of off-road racing that we still see playing out today. Brilliant gold and white colors cover the body in much the same fashion as the original Big Oly. A few weeks after the SEMA Show, Marshall took the Big Oly Trophy Truck south of the border to contingency at the SCORE Baja 1000 off road race. In the 1971 Baja 1000, Jones and Stroppe won the Ensenada-La Paz route in 14 hours and 59 minutes. 3 comments. The original "Big Oly", owned and driven by racing legend Parnelli Jones, captured the hearts and imaginations of a generation. The wing was constructed using the same methodology applied to aircraft building, riveted aluminum with internal ribs. Both front and rear suspension use coil springs with an internally mounted shock absorber – all mounted directly to the chassis. Each comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Parnelli Jones. Again the truck was displayed in the Bilstein booth and again it received and enthusiastic reception from the throngs of racing enthusiasts that swarmed the city of Ensenada for the carnival-like atmosphere of tech inspection and contingency prior to the start of the race. Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. 2009. This was the first time Parnelli Jones had seen the truck finished and Marshall was extremely honored when Parnelli and PJ Jones stopped by for a visit and sat in the truck for awhile. Big Oly was the equivalent of the first Trophy Truck in the early 1970s, resembling the the early Ford Broncos in production at the time.