It has been a little while since we heard from our buddies at Greenspeed Research. Apparently it's because they've been pretty busy! They've announced the Convergence Trophy Truck, which will be the first biodiesel-powered desert race vehicle. GsR believes that this truck will take the off-road racing scene by storm, due to its unique fuel and their claim that it will not sacrifice fuel economy for power.
The truck is built to meet "SCORE-International" and "Best In The Desert" race event standards. The overall goal with the truck is to show that game changing, renewable energy technology should be at the forefront of public discussion and prove STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is a crucial component in making a better world. GsR Co-founder Dave Schenker says, "Motorsports are an exciting arena and an excellent platform for demonstrating the core aspects of STEM, the importance and possibilities of clean biodiesel, and the positive global impact these things have."
Such an advanced vehicle would be useless without a driver equally suited to the task. With that in mind, GsR has brought Paul Robinson onto the team as Driver 1 of the Convergence TT. Paul has participated in over 100 racing evetns, including the Mint 400 and the Vegas to Reno. Paul is excited to be the driver of such an innovative truck and to showcase the benefits of biodiesel in endurance racing. He says, "The gasoline trophy truck drivers brag about getting 2.5 to 3 miles per gallon. We will be getting three times that! So that means, when they’re pitting twice, and taking 5 minutes to pit, we’ve driven by them. Biodiesel is a game changer in the world of off road, FOR SURE."
Its stellar fuel economy isn't the only selling point of the TT. It's also been built to handle far better than its competition. According to GsR Co-founder Patrick Johnston, who has spent the last 12 months leading the design of this vehicle, "my engineering focus of the Convergence TT was finding the balance between perfect handling and suspension travel. Our vehicle has ideal steering characteristics like zero bump steer at any steering position, while keeping massive suspension travel. I don’t think anyone else can make that claim in the off-road race world."
The end goal of the build is to reach the finish line at the famous SCORE-International Baja 1000 desert race. With that in mind, it's now time for the rubber to meet the road, as it were. Building the truck is in full swing as we speak. Follow the build in real time on GsR's Facebook and Instagram pages, and find in-depth follow up articles featuring the design and fabrication “challenges and triumphs” on gsrfab.com.