This eBay listing for a modified Ford Bronco refers to it as a “prerunner.” As I have been casually interested in off-roading for a long time, I’ve seen this word come up many times in reference to vehicles modified for off-road use. There is a special edition of the Toyota Tacoma pickup called the “Prerunner,” but this term seems to be catch-all for various 4x4s. Only, I can’t figure out which. Someone here is saying that it’s a 2-wheel-drive vehicle modified for off-road use and used to “pre-run” an off-road race. But that Bronco on eBay has 4WD. Is the seller wrong in calling it a Prerunner then? He really seems like he knows his 4x4s - so I doubt it. Does this mean a 4WD can pre-run a race too? I understand that I might as well be speaking Hopelandic for a lot of people, but I know there’s bound to be one or two Dopers who do know the answer. Thanks in advance.
Off road race courses such as the Baja 1000 do not run on a track, they run across wild desert. Unlike the Indy 500 the drivers can and do sometimes get lost. Part of winning the race is getting lost less then the other guys. The course is also not the same from year to year. Checkpoints and pit locations will vary.
[worthless piece of trivia] The very first Baja 1000 was won by a guy named Spence Murray driving a (are you ready for this?) Rambler American. The Rambler was not faster than the other cars, Spence just got lost less than everybody else and wound up first. [/WPT]
So to learn the course the drivers will go pre-run the course. The better you know the course, the better your chances of winning. The team I was on had a 6 time Baja winner, and he would typically pre-run for about a week for the long races, and 2-3 days for a short race.
To do this pre-running he would use a pre run truck. In our case the the team would use to pre-runners that would go out together. Driver, navigator, and team manager plus maybe one other person. They would take notes, and figure out the best way through various sections of the course.
In our case the trucks consisted of a 4WD pickup specially modified for the task. (the race truck was 2WD and was much faster) The truck had a custom 70 gallon fuel tank in the trunk just behind the cab. It carried two spare tires, race seats, and full race harnesses. It had a beefed up suspension, custom fenders to accommodate over sized tires. The engine had been modified with dual sidedraft Makuni carbs, and a custom airbox to prevent dirt intrusion into the air cleaner.
Because pre running often meant being no where near a hotel, the truck would also carry camping gear, and food. One thing it did not have was a roll bar. In serious off roading unless you run the cage from end to end, and mount it in soft bushings, you can crack the truck’s frame where the roll cage ends. Our team deemed it to be more work than potential benefit, so no roll cages.
A Toyota Prerunner is a slightly tarted up version of a stock truck that is some similar in appearance to what Ivan Stewart would pre run in. In other words all look, no go.
The eBay item is similar to what I would consider a real pre runner.