A Year in the Life of the “Imploder”

Part I: The Stock Class Months

It all started in September of 2003. After running an AMC Eagle at Mt Horeb in August, and basically killing it at that show, I was once again without a running race rig. That is when I got a phone call telling me about a race less than 70 miles from home and only 8 days away! My sickness took over. I went instantly into “I need to find a cheap truck” mode! I made a deal with a guy for a 91 Explorer 4dr Eddie Bauer with a 4.0 auto that was missing the fuel tank and the seats. He was in the process of parting it out. We agreed that I would pull all the parts for him in exchange for the body/chassis and “use” of the drive train for the weekend. He had plans to sell the engine and transmission and if I broke it, I bought it!

The truck got here on Sunday and was stripped down to only what it needed to run by Wednesday night. I removed all the glass that I could get out with out breaking it. I gutted the doors, pulled the dash, headliner, window motors, carpet, hatch, lights, everything went! I had wires everywhere. Thank God for zip ties to keep it all in line. Under the hood I pulled the fan off the motor along with the entire cruise, wipers, radiator support, inner fenders, and anything else I could remove. I wanted to ditch the radiator, but the owner of the engine didn’t like that idea, and it was, after all, still his engine.

I used the rest of the time I had left to install a body mounted roll bar, my race seat and 5 point harness, a F150 frame mounted fuel pump, and my fuel cell. I also cut off the front frame horns and both bumpers to help approach and departure angles. I had no faith in the auto hubs so I welded the two splined collars together in the engaged position. I also welded the rear diff and put 225s in the rear and 235s up front to help with the cornering. I gave it the “tennis ball lift” by jacking up the front and stuffing as many balls in each spring as I could get in there. Then I welded a plate over the hole to keep them there. I gained almost 2” that way! I hooked up the last of the fuel system and fired it up for the first time at 7:30 am the Saturday of the race. I drove it out of the shop, did a hot lap around the building, and put it on the trailer. I was one the road by 8:30. The race was at noon!

I arrived at the race with plenty of time to help tech in the other trucks. I entered the “stock class”. It was a long track with mud, corners, frame twisters, and some pretty big jumps. I gave it all it had. Low range in drive! I was on one wheel this way in one corner and one wheel that way in another and I heard it hit overdrive at least twice in the longer parts of the track. At the end of the first round, not only did I have the fastest time in the stock class; I had fast time of the day so far! I was forced to rub that in a bit to some of the “pro class” drivers. All in good fun of course! When the racing was over, I had 1^st place in “stock class’ and would have had 2^nd had I entered in “pro class”. I was truly impressed with how fast and agile this truck was with such minimal modification.

When I got to the pits I found a broken radiator tank from the landing off the large jump at the finish line. “I knew I should have pulled it out” was all I could think. The tank breaks allowed the Trans fluid to mix with the coolant and vice versa. The Trans did not like this one bit!

By now it was time for the freestyle part of the show. I patched the cooling lines together and tried to put it in gear,,,,,wait,,,,,,rev,,,,,go! It worked, sorta. I got it to the end of the line in the staging area and shut it down to wait my turn. The waiting was the worst part of it all. “Will it move again?” I kept wondering. Finally it was my turn! I was about 75 yd. from the starting line and I had let the track crew know what was up ahead of time. “I plan to start it up, and once it moves, I AIN”T LETTIN OFF TILL IT’S DONE MOVING!” They had no problem at all with that and said they would make sure all was clear before they gave me the go. I got the “go”, started it, put it in gear, waited, revvvvvvvvd, and went, to the floor, “LOOK OUT HERE I COME!” As I got just 10 ft from the starting line, out steps “dill wad Chevy boy” right out in front of me, and looking the other way! I really, really wanted to hit him just for being such an inbred goat poker that he didn’t even notice me headed at him full boar while everyone else was watching! But no, I locked up the brakes and stopped less than a foot from a very confused and startled retard, who then moved out of the way. TOO LATE! I floored it and just listened to the rev limiter pop away. I even tried reverse. The Trans gave up for the day. The track crew went so far as to try to get it rolling and hope it would grab a gear, but to no avail. No freestyle for me, and I wasn’t happy about it one bit! But, after some burgers and beers, it was a good day at the races after all! Just like any other day at the races, always a good day!

After that, the poor thing sat almost forgotten in the storage unit for several months. That came to an end in late February, when it was 2 weeks to go till the La Crosse race! I had made a deal in the mean time to own the engine and transmission, so out with the radiator! I just hooked the upper and lower hoses together and put an expansion tank from a jeep in the system. I flushed out the transmission and gave it fresh fluid and filter, and it worked! The only real change I made to it for this race was a quick dousing of Farm and Fleet white tractor paint and a bunch of stickers to make it look more race like.

I went to La Crosse and kicked some butt! That little 4.0 really pulled me around the tight indoor course. There were a couple times when the jacking effect of the TTB almost put me on my roof, but I managed to keep the rubber side down both nights. I ended up with 4^th on Friday night and 3^rd on Saturday night. The best part was beating so many of the high dollar/high horse power trucks that showed up with a stock V-6. It was another great weekend of racing and I even won enough to cover all the costs!

Several weeks later, I took it to the World of Wheels car show in Green Bay to help one of the race promoters advertise for the coming summer season. I added some aluminum to the interior to pretty it up just a little. I also made some tall ramps, which we covered, in brown cloth, to drive the front on. This made it look like it was heading off a jump and got a lot of attention with the hood 6 ft off the floor. They entered me in the “4x4 competition” class in the show, but we were just trying to show how little it took to come and race. We laughed all weekend about what award it could win. “Most Pounded Pile”, “Most Runs in Paint”, “Least Expensive Ride in the Show”? We came up with hundreds of them! On Sunday afternoon, after having the coil die in my hauler and messing with that all day in the rain, came the award announcements. I didn’t bother going up with the crowd to see who won. I was ready to load up and go home after 3 days of standing around talking to people. I was just sitting by my truck when I heard “4x4 Comp class, Best in Class, Mark Symoens, 91 Explorer”. I just couldn’t believe it! “NO WAY!” is all I could think. Several of the others in the class seemed less than pleased about it. They were all shiny and polished; I had mud packed into the front pumpkin!

I realized then that the “Imploder” was a winner! It had won me something everywhere I had taken it! It needed to become a “Pro Class” truck! It did just that, but that is another story… (Look for part II in the next newsletter!

Written by, Gremlinstein

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