After curing the shifting and cooling bugs of test day #1, we headed out to the open desert for Test Day #2 on Saturday. El Chivo was ridden pretty hard for over 100 miles. Here are my observations. Hopefully, the rest of the team will chime in and call it how they saw it:

1. Cooling and tranny issues are GONE. . .shifts are smooth and the temps stayed very low even in pinned sand washes. Thank you State Transmission!!!!

2. The suspension is almost dialed in. I think that the valving is fine, but the shocks could probably use a set of seals so we'll do that before the race. The passenger side front would fade under constant pounding, but if we paced a little more, it would come back kinda like it is cavitating a little bit and getting hot. Overall, the ride is very good and controlled. I personally have to work on throttle modulation in the sand to keep the truck straight, but by the end of my third lap I was just having FUN FUN FUN!!! It is really amazing how well the truck works in the whoops. . .it has no trouble getting up on plane and running hard. The GOODYEAR MT/R tires hook up like crazy.

3. The motor SCREAMS and our IAC issue is gone. Engine temps are all on the cold side of the green (185-190 water and 140 oil). We are going to have to check on the fuel economy though. . .110 miles on a tank is not enough so I'm thinking that either the sand is eating up the economy or the tank wasn't full OR we were pushing too hard. I kind of think that we were pushing. . .AND. . .there are no smooth sections on our test track. We are almost always in 1st or 2nd gear.

4. Co-Driving is harder than driving. The truck is almost too good and the co-goat has to work to navigate and keep the driver paced and watch the gauges and mirrors. Granted, we didn't have course markers or notes, but it still takes a lot of focus.

5. Damage was minimal. . .we had one shackle bolt loosen. . .we know how to fix that. Next test run will have hot pits as well so we'll be able to check everything every 20 miles or so.

6. Most of the test miles were after dark. . .the lights work great. They needed a couple of adjustments, but they were just peachy.

7. Wow. . .just wow. I'm super impressed. Based on what I've seen so far, we just need to slow down a little in the rough to keep the truck together and we're golden.

8. Here's a teaser video for ya. . .coming down the hill is about 1 foot motorcycle chop growing to around 18 inches at the bottom.

Looks great, sounds great! Those whoops look like they hurt lol. 110 miles is pretty rough as well, not sure but what you listed will definitley do it. Running mine on the street I only get abou 230 to a tank, 250 on the highway.

Can't watch it till I get home but glad to hear testing is going well...only like a month left to go!!

yessir. . .one more testing day then she gets torn down for final prep and its off to the races.

You sure those were Goodyear MT/R's ... I could swore we had paddles on the back of that thing Honestly, it was starting to feel like driving my yfz450 in the dunes.

Whats the word guys, its getting closer!

We tested a bunch more yesterday. It was a total success. We'll have some vids up as soon as Jose gets them downloaded

Cool! They need to have these races on Speed so I can watch from Kansas!