Two Firemen and their 3RZ Desert Screamer

Who doesn’t like Firefighters? Judging by all the calendars we’ve seen in the shops, it is certainly a popular profession. But for these Colorado-based firemen, Jason and Paul, having one of the coolest, most dangerous, and adrenaline-pumping jobs in the world wasn’t enough. They also wanted to go off-road racing!

The pair met 26 years ago and they started racing in 1999 in their modified 1986 Toyota Tacoma SR5 truck (which is also known as a Hilux in other parts of the world).

It all started when, on an impromptu trip to the Baja 1000, the pair got their first taste of Trophy Truck racing up close and personal. There and then they knew they wanted to be involved, and went on the hunt for an appropriate vehicle to race.

As luck would have it, one of their friends had a 1986 Toyota Tacoma SR5 truck with a blown head gasket that was destined for the scrapyard. Jason and Paul made an offer, bought it for a grand total sum of $300, and much like rescuing a cat from a tree, saved the Toyota. It turned out to be the best decision of their racing career.

Starting out in the Seven Stock class meant there were certain limitations to the allowed modifications for the Fire Guys truck. However, with some home-grown know-how and plenty of determination, the guys quickly got the truck to a competitive level. Almost too competitive, as the Fire Fighters would often get to a race, only to find a rule change had been implemented to slow them down.

This prompted the team, which had now expanded to include family members and close friends, with Paul and Jason sharing the driving duties, to make the move up to Open Seven class. Aside from meeting safety standards, this class allows unlimited modifications to most components resulting in radical, full-tube chassis builds with long-travel suspension and often big horsepower engines.

Moving the truck to a different class opened up a host of new possibilities, but it also presented a lot of new challenges. To meet those challenges, the truck needed to be stronger and faster so the boys decided to do an engine swap.

The Open Seven class specifies that the engine must have either four or six cylinders. So the original 22R Toyota engine came out and was replaced with a four-cylinder Toyota 3RZ. The 2.7L capacity unit was built by LC Engineering in Lake Havasu, Arizona and is stuffed with all sorts of trick gear like CP Pistons made to LC Engineering custom specs, custom grind Web cams, over-size valves, including fancy Inconel exhaust valves, and Pauter rods.

Fuelling is taken care of by a 32 gallon Fuel Safe fuel cell with dual Bosch fuel pumps and 480cc matched injectors. The naturally aspirated engine drinks Sunoco Standard 110 octane fuel, makes around 300kW at the crank and revs to 8500 rpm.

Connected to the engine is a Turbo 400 transmission, hooked up to a Torque Converter Solutions 8” converter.

The suspension, hubs, links, upper and lower control arms and rear axle housing are all cambered and mounted to a home-built chassis. There is 15 and a half inches of travel up front and 25 inches in the rear. The rear suspension is a 4 link suspension set up custom-built both by Camburg Engineering and Fire Guys Racing.

The differential is also a Camburg Engineering custom-built unit and is a full float set up with 2.5” spindles and hardened axle tubes to help with rock strikes.

Inside the cabin, the dashboard is filled with an array of switches and modules that are pretty unrecognizable to anyone unfamiliar with off-road racing but all with purpose. Just don’t touch the big red button… All of the important information can be seen on a freshly installed iC-7 display dash that is mounted in front of the co-driver.

Engine management is taken care of by an Elite 2500 ECU with a single channel wideband controller kit, installed and tuned by master tuner, and one of Haltech’s unsung heroes – Gabe Salazar from SNP Speed Innovations.

The truck runs BFGoodrich 35” x 12.50” R15 KDR2+ full race tyres and depending on the surface can get anywhere from 4 miles to the gallon up to 6.5 miles to the gallon.

Despite Paul and Jason punching well above their weight, keeping a tight lid on the budget and relying a lot on their friends and family to stay competitive in a very expensive class, they seem to be having the time of their lives and that’s what it’s all about!