The Italian RockBouncer - EOR/Smith Motorsports buggy for competitions in Italy.

A gentleman by the name of Francesco from Italy contacted Smith Motorsports about building a chassis that would be used in Italian competitions. Smith Motorsports built it into a roller and Essentially Offroad finished it to turn-key. Francesco tells me the main motivation is building a reliable, strong buggy. He says "If a buggy can deal with rock-bouncing it must be a reliable one". The terrain in Italy is similar to what we see here in the southeast. The big difference is the comp courses are very tight and technical and usually require much winching so this buggy was designed as compact as possible but yet still incorporates everything needed to be a reliable comp buggy.
The motor is a LQ4 6.0 with a TH400 trans and an Atlas case. The axles are custom steering 14 bolts F/R with 300M RCVs. One of the more unique features are the two alternators, and two Optima Yellow Tops. The reasoning behind this I assume is because of the amount of winching this thing will see with the front 8274 and rear 9500 warn winches. Another feature not normally seen is the intake "snorkle" mounted near the roof. I expect this thing will see some deep water/mud.

Hopefully Francesco will post up with more info.

Photo album here:
http://www.rickybphotography.com/Rig-Features/TheItalian-EOR-SMITH

Few photos:



















More photos can be seen here:
http://www.rickybphotography.com/Rig-Features/TheItalian-EOR-SMITH

Cool looking buggy. The snorkel in the cab is pretty neat and different.

How much is shipping to Italy nowadays?

ridered3 said:

Cool looking buggy. The snorkel in the cab is pretty neat and different.

How much is shipping to Italy nowadays?

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I can get you taken care of for the italy trip... I arranged the shipping for this unit as well the "stoploss" buggy! I drooled all over there shop a few weeks ago looking at this rig. The attention to detail is stellar! I got to meet Fransesco at KOH last year, and I can't wait to see the comp pics of the unit in action. It is the most compact buggy other than the kid buggy I have ever seen!

Passengers feet on top of the battery

This dude is gonna be hated over there! He'll be smoking their ass at the comps! :****: (and winching a lot less I bet)

great pics Ricky

Hello everybody from Francesco,
Thanks to Mr. Smith and Tommy for chassis, EOR for getting parts and tuning and RB for pics.
To custom make the buggy, I went to Chattanooga twice last year to put heads together working
on it with Mr. Smith. It should now satisfy my competition purposes.
I love it, it's stylish and refined ! 4000lbs may be a bit heavy but it has a lot of stuff on and it will
be sturdy, reliable and safe too.
The buggy will be tested and finished in Italy, also adding firewall shields, fire extinguisher,
tool bags on the battery in front of passenger’s feet and other minor stuff to match the rules
of our stop-watch competitions where it's often faster to go through obstacles by winching
instead of attempting them several times.
Even if less spectacular, of course. Things may change !

question - is the ECU waterproof? the air cleaner is pleanty high enough, but is everything else sealed and meant to go under water?or was that the intent of the air cleaner being that high?

buggy looks awesome, been checking it out at EOR - motor sounds good too :****:

Whats the specs on the motor - cam swap / tune?

Would live to see some video of this unit

MA MA MIA, PA PA SITO, da BUGGY SHEA LOOKA GOODA

DAMN,,, goin to Italy...COOL, I feel sorry for the other Italians that gotta race / play foller the leader with him

;D

This side of the ocean 1st place wins a pizza, 2nd spaghetti and 3th maccheroni….not many sponsors with deep pockets around here.
So I wanted a rockbouncer for the pleasure of riding and the adrenaline rush.
Nevertheless, I would like to stay a step ahead, as in the last championship there were new buggies coming from the USA.
Last year I came to buy a second-hand one, then for several reasons, I decided to start building one.
When I asked to Smithmotorsports for a “ COMPACT” buggy, I knew it was a way to get them into trouble!
They really take care about customer satisfaction.
They are open-minded and accept new ideas, even if won’t do anything they dislike, are competent in projecting, meticulous in refining, do top notch work, rarely need grinding on weldings, and waste very little tube and are also fast with the new bender.
Last but not least, …are not expensive. ...follows...

Be shure and post us some vids or pics of that mochine in action man

Motor Is lq4 6.0 Just a clean reliable unit.
We did have it dyno tuned with an injector swap and it made a huge difference. It runs out of gear faster than you can shift.

There is alot packaged in this thing and I think they pulled off putting an 8274 on the front ...that an't easy.

-Jimmy

It’s a pretty basic motor. Dytotuning-chassis estimated 420 hp ht flywheel, about 240hp
( th400 sucks 40 Hp himself ) and 290 ft\lb torque on off road tires.
I asked for a strong motor, a small iron block, that always brings the buggy under the flag
( not as a rocket but quite fast ) , without forcing too much on transmission.
Will work on sealing electrical when in Italy.

Thank EOR guys for all good work done in finishing, to Jimmy for his competence
and patience , I know in the southwest winching is not well seen, I understand why.
The front of this chassis has been framed-sized narrow to let front shocks travel easy,
just enough room to fit an 8274.
When here I’ll fix our BASIC WINCH SWAP, itconsists in a support for double motor
of 6 hp each instead of 4.6, and a bigger textile cable, that should be enough on this rig.

The buggy I’m running with now ( has most of the competitors ) has 3 winches:
Rear, central for side pulls and has a GIGGLEPIN in the front.
It’ an evolution of 8274, it’s a strongher ,faster and more reliable competition winch.
Has a wider drum that can host 50 mt. of 1.20 diam. Textile cable.
Runs two 7hp each motor ( each has 800 A° absorbing in starting )
Has 30% faster gears and oversized mainshaftand , two Albright solenoids.
Has air pneumatic drum’s unlock for a quick release of the cable.
Yes it will pull a two tons rig like a SLING will do …..BUT :
Costs about $ 6000 in U.K. , need a lot of amperage as two optima yellow batteries,
A° 200 dedicated alternator, big and short cables, need to be correctly fixed ( 8 bolts )
to a strong chassis, oversized cable and the overall adds more than 200 lbs weight .

http://youtu.be/yz34DYq07jk

Now that looks like some cool ass wheeling there. :****:

And that's a really cool winch setup too!

ETO said:

Now that looks like some cool ass wheeling there. :****:

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Need a wet suit for that :****:. Very cool!

If any of you guys have the chance to work with a "out of towner" you should take it .we learned quit a bit from Francesco he is a very smart person and knew exactlly what he was looking for from wheel base,track width,over all height and weight.he also came and worked with us for a week on the project .it was a great experiance.hope to see some wild wheel standing rock bouncing action!! thanks for the oppertunity it was a pleasure to meet you and work for and with you.TommyRains

I stopped by EOR to pick up my new buggy last weekend and saw "The Italian Rock Bouncer" first hand.

NICE RIG! Francesco will really be happy and kick some ass too!

Enjoy