Old-School: Ohld-Skool
Adjective: characteristic or evocative of an earlier or original style, manner or form
Old-school can be anything referring to a previous generation of a subject, idea, object, etc. Typically, the named topic is highly regarded and oftentimes at the root of the subject's creation. The modern sport of ATV racing as we know it began with old-school racers such as Mickey Dunlap on board ATCs of the 1980s.
When the phrase old-school comes to ear I envision an era of badass muscle cars such as the '69 Z-28 or '72 Chevrolet Chevelle covered with hand-painted flames ripping from stoplight to stoplight. If your idea is more like your grandma's wood panel grocery wagon or green screen computers, Mickey Dunlap's ground-pounding thumper projects probably aren't your cup of tea. During this era of American muscle I imagine Mickey would have been routinely leading a plume of white smoke through town as the smell of burning rubber filled the air with flashing blue lights in hot pursuit. (Don't hold me to this assumption.) As the '80s rolled around gas-guzzling V-8s were replaced with rice-burning four-cylinders, and motorcycles mutated by gaining an awkward third wheel. Mickey witnessed this transformation firsthand and soon unleashed a wrath of three-wheeled terror on the ATC racing circuit.
Today, 30 years into the future we find ourselves captivated by the ever-evolving sport that was created by old-school motorsport pioneers such as Mickey. With some spare time and a laptop I'm sure it would be possible to locate a majority of the sport's pioneers, but if it's Mickey Dunlap you seek, he won't be hard to find. Dunlap's Four-Stroke Tech is an industry leader, and Mickey continues his presence in the racing scene due to his phenomenal mechanical ability to transform any lame and tame quad into a gut-wrenching monster.
I've tested quite a few of FST's machines over the years, and this experience has taught me to expect the unexpected. At the unveiling of the latest FST creations at Durhamtown Plantation in Union Point, Georgia, the ATV Rider staff was quite surprised, to say the least. Two glowing machines rolled off the truck outfitted in Maier zesty orange plastics (FST's battle colors) as always, but it was the choice of machines that caught us completely off guard. At the heart of the brilliant orange radiance we found a 1987 Honda 250X paired with a 1991 Yamaha Warrior. These are two old-school machines that have been around from the beginning, and just so happen to be the only two that are still available today with minimal changes since the late '80s. You could possibly be riding one of these machines and not even know it. Today they are better known as the Yamaha Raptor 350 and the Honda TRX300EX. There have been cosmetic changes to the Yamaha, and the Honda has gained electric start along with a few cc, but the really good news is that the FST modifications are available for all models of these machines and will yield the exact same results.
I've owned both of these models at different periods in my life and have spent numerous hours on board both machines, so I had a basic idea of what to expect-or so I thought.