FEATURE
BRYAN KUDELA:
E
veryone knows of Bryan Kudela but no one actually sees him (Where IS Catheys Valley, anyway?). Well, for one, Kudela’s reputation literally precedes him; his resume stands above the giants of the industry, by virtue of his work with General Motors, particularly the design of the “Big Mac” Trophy Truck and it’s smaller sibling “Lil Mac”. (Which is still in operation, now by Doug Siewert, winning this year’s “Baja 500”.) Another prominent success in the Light Racing repertoire is the design of the Baldwin Racing Trophy Trucks. (Jason Baldwin won the coveted 2004 SCORE Trophy Truck Title and brothers Jason and Josh are currently leading the 2005 season through the Baja 500 holding both 1st and 2nd in the points standings.) But Kudela never has a booth at Contingency, does not race, does not post on the internet – he’s generally keeping a low profile. ORE was lucky to catch up to him for an interview between meetings, a wedding (his) and a GM proposal. Since 1986 “Light Racing by Specialty Products Company” has been designing and developing specialized off-road vehicles and the “Mac” race trucks for General Motors Truck Engineering, GM Racing, and GM Military Trucks as well as for other automotive manufacturers, companies and teams. (Light Racing was acquired by Specialty as a “Skunk Works” operation – a chip-making think tank - Specialty is a major player in “tuner” suspension kits and
alignment parts.) Specializing in 4WD and AWD vehicle development, Light Racing has been associated with off-road successes 30
which include 5 Riverside Off-Road World Championships, 2 MTEG Manufacturers Cup Titles, 7 consecutive SCORE Class 7 Desert Championships, 3 Pikes Peak Hill Climb Overall Truck Records, and the 2004 SCORE Trophy Truck Championship. Currently working on an OEM supplemental suspension system, Light Racing continues to design, engineer and produce dedicated off-road racing applications in conjunction with developing consumer driven products. Bryan has eight employees in the Light Racing Group; four of them are engineers and one is a CAD specialist. They are supported by the complete SPC organization in Colorado. “Specialty wanted to have our racing image and our expertise to develop parts to Tier One potential for OEM and aftermarket use.” Kudela noted that he has hired a number of his staff from the SAE “Mini-Baja” programs. “They are often the cream of the crop,” he stressed. “They know the theory and they like getting their hands dirty in the shop.” “JounceShock™” is the buzzword at Light Racing: “We coined the term to separate it from the common “bump stop” for use in an OEM environment. We have been in the hunt for twelve years to get the concept onto a full line of vehicles.” The JounceShock™ device operates not unlike a race car bump stop but in the wonderful world of OEM it can’t be something just hung on the side of a frame rail. It cannot interfere with another group’s “real estate”, it has to be totally proven, it has to be cost effective and it has to be at a level of quality acceptable to the manufacturer. Packaging often requires that the JounceShock™ be mounted such that a linkage contacts the suspension pickup points and operates the unit indirectly. What the device does do, and does so admirably, is to allow a truck, such as a Silverado, to traverse one of GM’s inverse “tope” (speed bump) test sections at twice the speed of what the stock unit can safely do! “We have them on most of the GM
Military Trucks, many of which are used by the Border Patrol.” It takes out the whoops, stores the energy and releases it slowly, lagging the suspension on the way down… until the rocker linkage is restored.
“Maintaining the nitrogen charge is something we have spent a lot of time on. Many race units have only days or even hours before they are low on pressure. We are developing units that must meet OEM life specs. In fact, these rigorous OEM requirements will allow us to offer a race unit that will be much more robust than you could otherwise get.” With no modifications other than a JounceShock™ system, a stock truck can run at least double its normal speed over rough terrain! In certain demos, they would have test engineers drive stock trucks which were limited to 20 mph; then encouraged them run to 45 mph in the modified vehicles! This was one of the most significant “A-B” tests they had ever experienced. Typically in many of these performance evaluations you might only see marginal results; this was significantly better! It leaves the normal highway ride unaffected and only comes into play under heavy wheel travel. The only change or addition is the JounceShock system, which of course is tuned for each specific platform. Kudela’s answer to the obvious question
Off Road Expo 2005 Presented by Toyota Trucks
FEATURE was: “Yes, we have major plans for the system as an aftermarket product. It has been a big job but the first applications will hit the shelf in late August. We will have product available by the Off-Road Expo and SEMA. They will include JounceShock™ systems for GM’s K2500 and K3500. The 1500 should hit the shelf by the end of the year.” You can get an idea of the ”noncomplexities” of the install from this photo.
“Finding the available real estate in production vehicles IS a challenge, but we have come up with numerous ways to overcome it. Our newest slide shaft method in the front and the rocker mount in the rear of the GM 1500 is very slick.” “We will also be debuting a number of other systems and components including some robust, skin-tight skid plate systems, which utilize our new patent-pending ‘MultiLignment’ washers. We will also be introducing the most extensive high-end set of flared-hole dies available. It will be THE set that I have always wanted, but could never find. Relatively expensive, but real fabrication tools!” The process of getting on board with a manufacturer can be a long haul, especially when forced to deal with a complex corporate structure such as General Motors. Engineers at every level have to be convinced of the durability and desirability regarding a change…then the bean counters come in! But Kudela has worked with GM – directly and under third party contract — for many years. The MacPherson “Big Mac” effort was driven by the GM Truck Engineering department: it was a technical exercise and technical transfer, so they know Bryan’s abilities. One of the hurdles has been to convince GM that his organization has the capabilities to provide product seamlessly at the enigmatic “ISO
TSI6949” levels required, although they could simply buy his idea and source it elsewhere; but Kudela wants it all. Bryan graduated with an ME degree from Cal Poly SLO in 1982. “I went to work at Rancho Suspension for what was half-price in those IBM days. It was a great step for me but I had to get out of there after only six months ...in those days it was sort of a hammer and duct tape deal, I was looking more for high-end racing challenges!” he laughed, “but I did have a project that won the ‘Best Engineered New Product’ award at SEMA that year!” At Cal Poly the SAE students built a Toyota Class 7 pickup that we actually convinced Roger Mears to drive at the ’81 Off-Road World Championships … and he won! “While working at Rancho, I went to Cal Wells when the Toyota program was starting up and offered to work – for free! After two days I was hired, as a fabricator.” Those were wildly successful times. “Carroll Smith was doing design work for Cal at the time, but was on the road so often that I worked my way into the design room, where I cleaned up some open issues and next thing I knew, I was PPI’s full time engineer.”
“My biggest disappointment was not having the opportunity to continue development of the ‘Million Dollar Supertruck’ – an ultra-sophisticated Chevrolet S-10 for Larry Ragland. In 1989 it was basically one of the first TrophyTrucks. Technically a ‘Class 2’, it had full IFS, full IRS, and remote torsion bars actuated by Kevlar belts on changeable cams. That was a variable rate proportionally damped system (things are now “staged” with bypass systems) so it was quite difficult to setup, as it was infinitely
Off Road Expo 2005 Presented by Toyota Trucks
variable. We had custom CVs that had 1¼” balls. The automatic transmission was remote, like a transaxle, with a step-down gear box at the crank to cut back on input shaft speeds”: high RPMs kill torque converters. “But it had a lot of teething problems as we were trying so many new things”: techniques avant-garde. At the 1990 “Baja 500” Ragland, starting 25th in class 1, had caught Bob Gordon (who started 1st off the line) by Borrego ... and they were 45 minutes ahead of the next vehicle! But a thin casting in one of the heads shut it down while leading overall, and GM soon pulled the plug. “I’d love to buy it for the museum if they haven’t shredded it by now.”
“It’s tough making a living in off-road,” Bryan confided. “There are only a handful of degree’d engineers in the field, anyway, and only some of those are consistently busy.” And Bryan is busy: “I have made over 400 business trips in the last twenty three years! But, man, I love it!” “Success is simply a by-product of a positive and complete attitude. It is not success that I hope for, but the “State-OfBeing” which automatically produces it. Light Racing has been successful and I have realized and enjoyed all of the adventures. The celebration continues.”
❑ Visit Light Racing at 4213 Johnson Valley Trail or on the intenet at www.lightracing.com 31