Ivan “Ironman” Stewart and the 1984 PPI built Toyota. Photo Greg Gears Toyota Racing.
When I was introduced to desert racing in the 80’s I quickly became a fan of Ivan Stewart and his PPI built 1984 Toyota race truck. My first truck was a 1983 Toyota when I was 15 and I have owned many Toyota trucks, cars and SUV’s since then. I guess you could say that Toyota’s relationship with Ivan over the years has heavily influenced myself as well as many others and was an excellent marketing plan (which continues with Ivan today).
A few years ago I thought about how awesome it would be to find the 001 chassis 1984 PPI Toyota and restore it to race NORRA. Come to find out, Rory Ward was thinking the same thing starting about 2 years ago and now owns the truck. After seeing his restoration of the Mickey Thompson Challenger IV and a couple other vintage cars I know it’s in great hands. I look forward to Rory’s restoration thread that he will be updating in the new Off Road Action forum and I will also post summaries on the ORA home page.
This is a quick story that Rory sent in about how he found the truck and eventually closed the deal.
About 2 years ago i was browsing through RDC and stumbled upon the thread about Allen Russell’s Toyota stadium truck. Reading through the comments someone mentioned Ivan Stewarts old race truck was owned by a guy named Hugo Bojorquez in Mexico….. I was surprised that no one responded to that and I went straight to Google and tried to find info. No luck. About 6 months later I posted a picture of Butch Arciero’s Toyota on my Instagram page and Joel Amaya in Constitucion commented and said he knew the guy that owned the Ivan Stewart truck. I quickly deleted his comment and the photo (hahahahah) and found him on Facebook and connected.
This is the first photo of the truck that was sent to Rory.
The next 6-8 months I was able to talk to Hugo 1 time on the phone but he does not speak English too well. I think he stopped taking my calls due to the language barrier. Andrea Tomba also helped out and was able to get me my first photo of the truck….too bad it had garbage all around it so i could barley see it. About the same time Ron Bellerive in Loreto was able to contact Hugo for me and we communicated back and forth and then set up a date to come look at the truck (November of 2015). I flew to Loreto and Ron and I drove to Constitucion to check out the truck. I was surprised at how well the shape of the truck was in and all the suspension had not been messed with. The only real issue was they had cut the cab off the truck because they were going to put a new body on it. This was approx 10 years ago and Hugo pulled the plug and the truck just sat, completely stripped down to the frame. I made an offer and Hugo declined. I was crushed.
The bare chassis of the 1984 PPI Toyota.
5 months later I decided to try again and there was a light at the end of the tunnel but Hugo did not budge enough for me to make the deal. I finally through in the towel last week and made the offer and said i would be there on June 3rd to come get it if he accepted. Joel Amaya helped me with the deal and down I went, all the way to Constitucion for a 5 day trip.
Ivan “Ironman” Stewart racing the 1987 Parker 400. Photo: GETSOME Photo, C&C archives.
Here are some photos of Rory loading up the truck and parts.
Proud to be part from this resurrection. we will be waiting for.!!
FastEddy760Jun 8, 2016 @ 18:12
Rory, you’re a hero. Your history shows your attention to detail and car put into a restoration. Such an iconic vehicle driven by a legend in his earlier days. Can’t wait to see it in person.
Proud to be part from this resurrection. we will be waiting for.!!
Rory, you’re a hero. Your history shows your attention to detail and car put into a restoration. Such an iconic vehicle driven by a legend in his earlier days. Can’t wait to see it in person.
So awesome, I cannot wait to see what comes of this project!
Hi,
I built some of these trucks and have many build photos if this will help with your restoration.
Contact me directly via my email.
Brian.