BEST RFC BUILDS
The best off-road machines that made it to the Rainforest Challenge this year
THE RAINFOREST CHALLENGE RETURNED FOR ITS fourth season this year. Like every year, the stages were harder and like every year, the competition was better prepared as well. Held between July 24 and 30, 2017, the little state of Goa saw the influx of some of the country’s most hardcore off-road builds yet. We bore witness to them taking up the hardest trails Cougar Motorsport, the organisers of RFC India, could throw at them, and came back pretty damn awestruck.
Here is a collection of some of the best builds that made it to the competition this year. Some of them were basic (but incredibly effective), while some of them were just outrageously cool.
Gurmeet Virdi and Kirpal Singh Tung were successful defending their RFC title, and did so in the same vehicle as well. They have been using this build since 2015, and this is the third time it has competed here. The only changes they made over last year’s build is to upgrade their front winch. Last year, they were running a Warn M8274. This year, they are running the M8274 in the rear, and are using a Comeup winch in the front.
The vehicle is an MY 2000 army disposal Maruti Suzuki Gypsy. The original engine was swapped for a 1.6-litre Baleno petrol engine, the most common engine swap for The Scorpion created waves because this SUV is going to be built in India and sold in the Indian market in the not so distant future under the IronScorpion name. It will mainly target the defence markets but hardcore enthusiats could buy them as well. While those sold in India will be MK4 Scorpions, the MK1 Scorpion is what participated in the RFC. The Scorpion is a full tube chassis vehicle, where the whole structure of the vehicle is simply fabricated tubes and it has aluminium panels bolted on to it. This allows them to take a tremendous beating without facing too much body damage — most panel damage this car. The engine hasn’t been modified in any way, it even runs the stock air filters and headers. The rest of the drivetrain is stock as well: the gearbox and transfer case are off a stock Gypsy and It’s running a basic coil spring suspension with about 12 inches of total travel. Though the build is a basic one, this Gypsy looks really imposing because of its tall suspension, a must-have if you want to make it past even the first stage at RFC. Its success at RFC just goes to show that a simple, well-done build, coupled with a skilful driver and co-driver can dominate the competition. can be fixed with a hammer. This particular Scorpion was running a 5.7-litre Chevrolet V8 petrol engine with fuel injection, coupled to the 700R4, a four-speed automatic made by General Motors. Drive goes through a 5:1 Atlas transfer case and Dana 60 axles. The Scorpion has a massive 52-inches of axle articulation, with very little chassis roll. It differs from most of the other builds because it has a far wider track, but it is shorter than most. Jaskirat Singh Nagra, who heads Sarbloh motors and was responsible for 12 of the builds at RFC this year, will be making and selling the IronScorpion in India. Jagat Nanjappa and Chetan Changappa finished a strong second this year, giving the Gerrari boys a good run for their money. They ran an ’80s Jeep (they weren’t sure exactly what model year it was), which they started building from scratch. Starting out with a bare chassis, they assembled the engine, gearbox and suspension around it. It runs a 2.6-litre diesel engine from the Scorpio, mated to an NGT gearbox. They used this vehicle at the previous edition as well, but have made some minor updates since then. This year, it ran a new Gigglepin winch, and a new steering system. This vehicle is heavier when compared to the light, petrol powered Gypsys and made up time in the slower technical tracks, while the Gypsys had an advantage on the quicker tracks. This vehicle also won the RFC South India chapter held earlier this year, which gave them a free entry in to the main event.