PHOTOS BY BOYD JAYNES

On many levels, the beautiful new Nissan Titan Pro-2 truck you are gazing at represents the biggest gamble of the new CORR season. It is a totally new approach for a champion whose equipment took him to the top of the Pro-2
ranks last year. It is also a big step up for a truck manufacturer with roots stretching deep into off-road racing history.

Above: Truck’s front suspension is a blend of both form and function. Massive wheel travel is controlled by a single King coil-over shock. Note heavy-duty front hub and slotted brake rotor assembly.

Built in the off-season by Carl Renezeder’s American Flyer Racing, this Lucas Oil Nissan Titan is one of the latest CORR trucks preparing to hit the 16-race short course season in 2006. Renezeder, who beat six-time Pro-2 champion Scott Taylor last season in what many considered a major upset, is ready for the season to begin with a solid look at the future.

“When word leaked out that we had sold our championship winning Chevy, people thought I had lost my mind,” explains the 2005 champ. “But in racing, staying still is really moving backwards. The opportunity to work on a factory program with Nissan was very exciting, but it also meant leaving our comfort
zone as a team.”

Last season, Renezeder participated in a mid-season testing program based on the installation of a Titan engine and Nissan bodywork on an older American Flyer chassis. That combination made its debut at “Big Crandon” on Labor Day weekend, drivenboth by Renezeder and Nissan racing veteran Art Schmitt. The
testing continued at the season finale at Chula Vista, with
NASCAR and sports car star Boris Said behind the wheel.

With that as a baseline, Renezeder’s crew, under the watchful eye of crew chief Mike Seat, began the process of creating this brand new Titan at their Lake Forest, Calif., race shop. Seeing as the process of building a Pro-2 chassis under CORR’s current (and obviously highly successful) rules package is strictly regulated in overall design, Renezeder, Seat and crew spent much of their time on more subtle things;“Much of our time on this new truck was spent on packaging various components and working in cooling issues,” explained
Renezeder. “It’s all about controlling overall weight and managing weight distribution and center of gravity.”

BELOW: Ready and willing to start the 2006 CORR racing season, the new Nissan Titan V-8 is the heartbeat of Renezeder’s new Pro-2 machine. The engine is capable of producing 715 horsepower out of its 5.6-liter production block.

Naturally, the heart of the new Titan is the race–prepared Nissan V-8 powerplant that’s tucked away in an area that would, on a production truck, be the passenger seat and rear bench. Otherwise known as the “Endurance V-8,” the new racing engine is based on the Titan V-8 engine. Weighing in at
5.6-liters (or 340 cubic inches), the powerplant retains the stock block, cylinder heads, bore, bearings and ignition units as its production counterpart. Not surprisingly considering theextreme environment in which it must operate, the remainder of the engine contains pure race parts assembled by Indianapolis-based Menards Engine Development. Menards has worked with Nissan on several racing endeavors, including the Infiniti Indy and Infiniti Pro Series projects.

This messaging of parts and technology creates an engine that develops just over 700 horsepower and 525 ft. lbs. of torque.

As its first true foray into the big, powerful world of CORR Pro-2 racing, the factory is looking forward to building another addition to a short course racing legacy that started in the 1980s with Jim Conner and Roger Mears. “What more can you ask for than starting the year with the returning champion and crew in an all-new CORR Titan race truck?” explains Ron Stukenberg, senior manager, Nissan Motorsports marketing and operations. “As with our factory stock pickups, the CORR Titan race truck is going to be hard to beat.”

In the end, this whole process is about winning, a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by the reigning Pro-2 champion himself.“With all this support and effort, the question is not if we are going to get to the front but how long will it take us?” concludes Renezeder. “At the end of the day, the bottom line to winning is
that you still have to drive the piss out of them.”