It is said whether you sit or stand on it through the whoops, it makes no difference, so long as you throttle through it. This was shot at the first SNARE race of the season in Nelson Hill, Nev.

"What the hell? That guy needs to put a cage on that thing," griped one guy in the pits who had caught a glimpse of the Kevin Bunderson-built rig while warming his hands by the fire of that 20-odd degree morning.

His buddy chimed in: "Let's see, it's too big to be a quad and Casey (Folks, BITD Promoter) wouldn't let him run it as a Trophy Truck." "That's downright sick!" piped his buddy. With 17-inches of wheel travel at each corner and a builder like Bunderson Racing in Las Vegas, Nevada, you'd expect to see a car or truck chassis and not the Honda 400EX-looking thing clad with Al Baker's XR's Only graphics that Ram Proline's Russ Ramsey was aboard.

Here's the front end of BITD No. Q11. Click on image for larger view.

We first got word of the quad last year. But as with anything that Bunderson builds, the project was top secret and the information flow was about as dry as the Slash X after race weekend.

Snooping around, we only came up with these two words: "Trophy Quad!" Well, the other day we got a chance to catch a glimpse of the quad up close and on its way to a race. What we saw was pretty amazing.

The entire chassis was crafted from chromoly steel and modeled after the original Honda EX 400 frame; the only difference was this thing boasts an incredible 17 inches of wheel travel up A-arm front end and another 17 inches in the rear where a buggy-like trailing arm is attached.

We skinned it to catch a glimpse of what's inside. Click on image for larger view.

A seemingly archaic Honda big bore XR650L motor powers the rig. This isn't the water-cooled 650R motor that Honda introduced a few years back. We're referring to the air-cooled version you see mounted on the dual sport XR. Why the 650L? First off, it was the electric leg. Routing the exhaust alongside the right foot peg, there was little room for a kick-starter. More convincing was that the 650L is said to produce more torque than that found in the standard 650R motor.

To help out with the task of producing top end horsepower, XR's Only was called upon, giving the Bunderson-built quad enough go to get up to 90-plus MPH. One can only imagine what the monster would do if it had the 650R with its sixth gear as opposed to the five that the L offers.

The massive trailing arms help the quad to walk over the whoops much like a Trophy Truck does. Click on image for larger view.

Power is transmitted from the XR's Only big bore to the ground via a single chain, which lends itself into a dual chain system that traverses each massive trailing arm and ends up on two final sprockets. Up front, two large custom spindles control the steering.

There are some other trick goodies on the quad that you won't want to miss. Take for example the Exhaust Gas Technologies onboard computer system, which logs data such as the exhaust gas temp, cylinder head temperature, distance traveled, RPM, MPH and fuel mixture.

We'll catch up with the quad next month and let you know how the thing handles in the rock-strewn, no-man's land of Southern Nevada. The word is, it handles like a spooled Trophy Truck, lifting the inside front wheel in turns with an amount of body roll that'll probably require a sway bar.

Getting the Most Out of Your Pipes

Ram Proline
3614 North Rancho Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89130
(702)396-4500
www.ram-pro.com
RAMPROLINE@AOL.COM

Al Baker's XR's Only
6944 Santa Fe Avenue
Hesperia, CA 92345
(760) 948-0979
www.xrsonly.com
xrsonly@mscomm.com

Bunderson Racing
3028 Contract Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89101
( 702)382-3375