Changes at Tornado 2 from Italy

After more than 8 years without any big changes, the triple Allison tractor called ''Tornado 2'' from Italy received some major changes during the last 18 months. 

The Turbo 2000 team was founded by Gianluigi Barrocini and some other people in 2002. In that year the Italian team started to build their first modified tractor for the 4.5t class (today heavy modified class). The tractor was called ''Blu Tornado e-42'' and was powered by an Iveco e-42 semi-truck engine with 2 turbochargers on diesel fuel. 

The guys finished in a strong 3rd place in the Italian Championship point standings in their first season. A year later, the mod was further improved on the chassis and the engine. And the old set of tires were replaced by a set of new better puller tires. Those improvements brought them the title in the 2003 Italian Championship. 

In 2004, the Turbo 2000 Team did their next step in the pulling sport. After 2 seasons with the turbocharged Iveco engine on the tractor, the power plant was replaced by a much stronger and bigger engine. They replaced the engine by a Rolls Royce V12 Griffon aircraft power plant on avgas. For that switch, the whole chassis of the tractor was modified entirely due to the new V12 aircraft engine. 

During the next 2 seasons, the team learned a lot about the technic and the right settings of the Rolls Royce Griffon engine and also won the Championship title in those both seasons. In 2005, the Turbo 2000 Team also was invited with their tractor to the Euro Cup round in Bernay, France. 

At that Euro Cup round, Gianluigi and his team had for the first time the chance to compete against the best European 4.5t mod tractors in Europe. But against those top European tractors at that time, the Blu Tornado e-42 was underpowered and had no chance with his single Griffon engine in this class.

But during those first 4 years, the level and performance of the modified pulling tractors in Italy grew steadily and it was time to built something new. They stayed with Rolls Royce Griffon V12 engine, but the rest of the tractor was replaced by new stuff. The old heavy chassis was replaced by a new lighter tube frame and a newly built transmission and drivetrain.

Despite a few pulls that were necessary to develop the new vehicle, this new tractor proved to be incredibly successful. They won with Blu Tornado  again the Italian Championship title in 2006 and 2007.

But already in 2007, the 4.5t modified class grew in Italy with the arrival of the British triple Allison powered mod called ''Starlight Express'' of Jim Snell. The tractor was purchased by the Tractor Racing Team from Parma in Italy at the beginning of 2007.
But already in the middle of the 2007 season came the plans to build a new mod tractor for the 4.5t class. The Turbo 2000 Team decided to continue with the V12 power plants, but this time they choose to use Allison V1710 V12 aircraft engines for the new project. The only way to have a competitive tractor in this class was to build a triple Allison, like Starlight Express or Green Fighter from Germany. For the new project, they received help from Bob Barbee of Full Pull Motorsports in the USA. 

Bob developed and built a brand new chrome-moly tube frame with a 3 bar chrome-moly roll cage and a custom-built sheet metal rearend with Franklin planetaries. The custom built crossbox and the transmission for the triple Allison were built by Bob Barbee too. After all these parts were ready, the whole chassis with the drivetrain was shipped to Italy in 2008. The 3 Allison aircraft engines for the new mod were built with the support of the Green Monster Pulling Team from Germany and the Money Pit Pulling Team from Stonington, Illinois in the USA.  But it took a while before the tractor was ready to run. The new tractor was called ''Tornado 2''.   

The new triple Allison was ready before the last pull of the 2008 season in Italy. The Italian guys did their first steps with the tractor at the final Championship round and they also won the final Italian pull of the season. In the beginning with their new Tornado 2, they used a set of special cut Trelleborg puller tires on the machine. 

But those tires were replaced after the first 2 pulls of the 2009 season by a set of new cut Firestone 30.5x32 Puller 2000 HP tires. With those tires, the tractor ran much better and they won the third round of the season in Italy. During the year they had a fight against the other triple Allison called ''Starlight Express 3'' in the 4.5t mod class for the wins and the title. 

But in the end, the Turbo 2000 Team had the upper hand in the Italian Championship and won the title in 2009. That was enough to be qualified for the EC in Bakel, the Netherlands. The guys did the long trip to the Netherlands and had a great weekend there. With two strong pulls of Gianluigi behind the wheel, he finished with the triple Allison on a great 3rd place behind the triple Allison ''Green Fighter'' from Germany and ''Delta Loyd Simply Irresistible'' from the Netherlands. The team was very surprised about the result and they had never thought they can finish at their first European Championship under the top 3.
In 2010, the Turbo 2000 Team decided to sign up their Tornado 2 for the Euro Cup. Due to that decision, the Italians also decided to run only on a few Italian Championship pulls in that year. 

But how everyone knows, the Euro Cup is a tough championship with the best pulling tractors from whole over Europe, so it was a new experience for them too. The Tornado 2 was to find in the mid-field of the 4.5t modified class on almost all events. The best finish was a 6th place at the round in Made, the Netherlands.  In the end, they finished 9th in the 2010 Euro Cup point standings.  For the next season, they returned full-time back to the Italian Championship and competed very successfully again there. With the arrival of the new 4 Hemi engines powered mod tractor called ''Four No Hemi'' (former Mr. Twister of Scott Tedder from the USA) of Alessandro Rocco and the old rival, the triple Allison called ''Starlight Express 3'' they had now a real competition in Italy. 

With a couple of wins, they won after 2009 for the second time with their triple Allison the championship title in Italy. After that title win, the team maybe did the longest journey to an event. It was the European Championships in Alahärmä, Finland.
With two nice passes there, driver Gianluigi Baroncini positioned the Tornado 2 in the pull off on a nice 5th place, around 20m behind the European Champion ''Intertechno Lambada'' from the Netherlands. After that 2011 season followed a pretty long time of silence with not so much pulling competitions for the team. Work commitments and less time did not allow them to seriously engage in competitions until 2018. But during this time the tractor received nevertheless some little changes.

One of those changes was the old stock air intake on the supercharger of all 3 Allison engines were replaced by new homemade aluminum air intake funnels for a better airflow. 

From the history of the team back to the current days. 

After the ETPC had decided to drop the weight of the heavy modified class from 4.2t to 4t for the year 2020, the Italian Turbo 2000 Team around Gianluigi Barrocini from Ravenna decided to make some bigger changes on the tractor for the future.

Already during the 2019 season, the guys started making some changes on the Tornado 3. They experimented with a new tire tread on the Firestone Puller 2000 tires to get more grip on the tracks and they started to optimize the methanol injection system and the ignition system of all 3 Allison V12 aircraft engines. These first changes worked pretty well in 2019.

Due to the new weight limit in the heavy mod class for 2021, the guys did a lot of changes to the tractor to save much weight as possible to get the tractor under 4t and also to have more movable weight on the chassis for the different track conditions in the future.

The Turbo 2000 Team has lightened the Full Pull Motorsports chassis, moved the front axle forward, and replaced the old heavy front wheels. The old front wheels were replaced by a set of new Goodyear flying costum tires on aluminum rims. The new Goodyear tires are smaller and lighter than the previous ones. The new aluminum rims for the front tires are homemade and were CNC-machined on their own machine in their workshop.

The 2 lower sitting Allison engines on the side of the chassis were moved more forward in order to increase the weight in the front part of the tractor. They also saved weight on the drivetrain. They have built new lighter custom-built driveshafts and new lighter aluminum protections for the shafts.

Also, the rear axle received some new lighter, and stronger parts. The old Franklin planetaries and planetary carrier housing were replaced with newly developed and homemade aluminum planetary
carrier housing and new larger and stronger custom-built planetaries.

Also, the old aluminum sheet metal fenders on the tractor were replaced by new lighter ones out of aluminum.

To the power plants: The 3 Allison V1710 V12 aircraft engines were completely overhauled and got new high compression Arias pistons, new piston rings, new piston pins, and revised original Allison connecting rods. The original Allison rods were heat treated to get the rods stronger and more stiff. The advice for those heat treatments came from the Bollinger's of the Money Pit Pulling Team in Stonington, Illinois in the USA. 

The superchargers are still original but were overhauled and revised on some details. 

All engines were equipped with a new Waterman methanol fuel pump and new aero flow hoses and hose-ends were installed throughout the injection system. 

The MSD 8 Plus ignitions have been overhauled and equipped with new capacitors, new spark plugs and above all the team have installed a 16V LiFePO4 battery to replace the 12V Optima battery. 

The engines were also equipped with new lighter homemade steel exhaust headers and aluminum intake manifolds. The top Allison V12 engine will have a newly built and developed manifold of a different shape. The guys will experiment with the new manifold on the top power plant and hope to have a better airflow on the Allison. On all the intake manifolds was added a burst panel in case of backfire. 

The Italians also have invested in a new and modern AIM data logger system which allows them to monitor how all the engines have been operated and will allow them to make an optimal set-up of the methanol injection.

All in all, the modifications to the chassis should allow them to find a good setup for the competitions in the 4t heavy modified division. And with the engine modifications, the Allison V1710 engines should have more horsepower compared to 2019.

After all those changes, the Turbo 2000 Team have planned to compete in the Italian Championship and some pulls outside of Italy, if the covid restrictions allow that in 2021. Also, a start in the Euro Cup and at the European Championships (if they are qualified for the EC) are planned too for the future.

For further information, check here: https://www.teamturbo2000.com/ 

or, check here: https://www.facebook.com/Team-Turbo-2000-215599008790587/