When it comes to getting it right forever, there are few machines more awesome then the 1971 Ford Bronco known as Big Oly. Marshall Madruga certainly agrees. It took him two years to put this truck together as as a passionate tribute to the original Bill Stroppe Big Oly, driven by Parnelli Jones to greatness in the Baja 1000. Marshall started with a piece of a 1971 Ford Bronco and built this trophy truck around it. The section of frame is still there somewhere. Thanks to the original Bronco bit and corresponding VIN, the truck is street legal and registered in the state of California! The rest of the truck is ready to for display at this year’s Baja 1000, right after hanging out at the Bilstein booth here at SEMA. Marshall plans on running the truck in the upcoming National Off Road Association 1000, which begins on April 28 2010, and is set to run a rally the original 1968 route. Parnelli Jones himself is ready to drive with Marshall off the starting line in Mexicali. Welcome back Big Oly.
More: Big Oly from BajaBronco.com
From the unrestored race car department comes the Bob Boileau Jr. 1974 SCCA Honda Civic 1200. Any car that runs hard for sixteen years is impressive enough. One that wins six championships along the way is that much more awesome. Honda rolled out this and more historical examples of greatness here at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas, but the Civic was the first car ever witnessed on the SEMA floor wearing multiple rolls of duct tape and a band aid. Better still is that the little Honda holds (and proudly displays) the title of World’s Fastest Civic after clocking a 146.698 run at Talladega in 1976. The Bolus and Snopes Civic stands at the SEMA show as an surviving example of break it and fix it to win race engineering at its finest. 
From the Subaru we wish we could have driven up to Mad River Glen back in 1978 department comes Ken Block’s tread-powered Snocatbaru STI. The 0-60 Magazine crew informs us the modern STI was fitted with Matttracks treads at all four corners by the gang over at Vermont Sports Car. Today’s handy Vermont trivia fact is that it takes over forty gallons of maple tree sap to make one gallon of genuine Vermont Maple Syrup. While the Snocatbaru may in fact be the perfect vehicle for sap bucket gathering and trips on snow covered skidder roads out to the sugar shack, Mr. Block has more lofty plans for his tread-equipped rally car. Read all about it and watch a 
Even though there is most certainly a guy wearing a Members Only jacket and acid washed jeans that might disagree, 1982 was a long time ago. In that same year was the first production run for a car closer to the heart around here – the Mitsubishi Starion. This month’s Santa Clara gathering brought a collection of newer and older players along with an impressive number of Mitsubishi Starions, Chrysler Conquests, and a lone Starion turbo-engined Dodgmitsu Mighty Max pickup truck. This might have been the largest gathering of StarQuests seen in Santa Clara since the then new Specialty Sports Coupes were lined up at local Mitsubishi dealerships and Chrysler Import Centers. Post-gathering driving excursions involved some tire smoke, aimless GPS-inspired motoring, dislocated intercooler hoses, and a number one with grilled onions at the local In-N-Out Burger. Thanks to a forum post and those answering the call, there were good times and turbocharged forklift engines for everyone.
Crossing a dune buggy and a sprint car together by way of a Porsche engine made perfect sense to Bruce Canepa and Paul Newman in 1980. Front engine Sprint Cars and Indy Specials had been tearing up Pikes Peak Open Wheel ranks for some time, so Canepa figured a rear engine Sprint Car would be a winner for 1981. The original version sported a Porsche 911 naturally aspirated mill, but the upward transition to 14,110 feet played devils games with the carburetors. The solution? Swap out the normal breathing Porsche 911 unit with a twin-turbo fuel injected Porsche 930 powerplant. It worked. Canepa motored up the peak for an on the pole qualifying time. On the race to the top a spectator crossed the course and Canepa as he rounded a corner. Canepa avoided hitting the hapless fan, but the engine stalled in the mayhem. The good news? He got it started again and ran up the rest of the hill for a second place finish in the Open Wheel Division. As is the case with so many other race cars through history that worked too well, this car was banned by way of a rules change the winter following its run to the top. The car stands today as the answer to the question of what happens when you cross a Sprint Car with a Porsche 930.
