The high desert of Southern California
is a harsh place. Blowing sand, craggy
rock formations, and extreme tempera-
tures both hot and cold make it rather
difcult terrain. So, building a race
car to traverse dusty Mojave Desert
trails at more than 100 mph and then
crawl up steep stone-covered hills
is no small feat. In February, drivers
from throughout the country brought
custom "rock racers" to Johnson Valley,
CA, to see if they could conquer the
challenging landscape in the ULTRA4
racing series' ( ultra4racing.com ) sixth
Machining a
"Rock RaceR"
annual "King of the Hammers." The
198-mile rally race is billed as the
"toughest single-day, of-road race in
the world," and judging by the fact that
only 32 of the 158 racers who started
fnished, this just might be true.
One of the drivers is David Buchberger.
His custom-built rock racer is sponsored
by cutting tool manufacturer Widia
( widia.com ). Racing is Buchberger's
hobby. During the week, he's vice presi-
dent of Hi-Speed Corp. ( hispeedcorp.
com ), a Widia distributor. Widia is more
than a name on the side of his car.
Its tooling was used to produce the
custom-made parts on Buchberger's
race car, ranging from a 6061 T6
aluminum adapter that's ftted between
the transmission and the transfer case
to steel trailing arm shock mounts.
This year was Buchberger's third
attempt. He was sidelined this time by
a broken transfer case. He quips, "The
goal is to not break, and we broke."
Buchberger plans to return to the
desert next year, and he hopes his luck
improves.—ZP
AD&P; > April 2014 > FEATURE > Machining a "Rock Racer"
44
0414ADP FEATURE Wildia.indd 44 3/19/2014 12:51:08 PM