I think we all have a soft spot in our hearts for home built contraptions. Regardless of what they do it’s just cool to see what people can come up with in the dregs of their workshops. Take this ridiculous VW Passat for example. This thing must easily be 5-feet off the ground sporting what looks to be tractor tires and a fully home built suspension system. From the exhaust note the engine seems to be completely stock as well. As you can see the driver is having no problem flogging this thing through the snow, but all that height combined with a very narrow width would have me nervous to even set foot in that thing. Maybe it’s just me, but I have a feeling that we’re going to see a video of this thing flipping over very soon on Streetfire.net.
Magpul Industries builds upgraded parts and accessories for assault rifles. When they decided to build an off-road vehicle for promotional purposes, it was a pretty safe bet that they’d opt for the baddest ORV on the planet as a starting point. Working with Couch Off Road Engineering in Denver, CO, Magpul commissioned the custom Unimog you see here. Powered by a turbo diesel motor, this ‘Mog features 15,000 pound hydraulic winches on the front and rear, 8mm thick sliders and skid plates, a super-duty bull bar, a custom 27 gallon fuel tank and a spare tire carrier that doubles as a wheelie bar for climbing particularly steep grades.
In case you had any doubt on my choice of the Unimog as a zombie apocalypse vehicle of choice, this video should convince you. I’d sure love to take this beast for a drive across the Switzerland Trail.
Back in the days before pickups and SUVs became rolling-clubroom status symbols, manufacturers used to build simple, no frills, rugged trucks. If you needed a full sized truck, you shopped for a Ford, Chevy or Dodge, depending on your upbringing. If you needed a compact pickup, you shopped for a Toyota. Once you realized how expensive Toyota’s were, then you shopped for a Ford, Chevy, Nissan, Mitsubishi or Isuzu.
Isuzu and Mitsubishi have all but vanished from the market, and today’s offerings from the other manufacturers tend to be long on luxury and high in price. What if you want a simple, low cost truck with serious hauling capability? What if you’d prefer a diesel motor in your compact pickup? That pretty much narrows the field to none, these days.
Hooniverse recently posted this spectacular video of an ’80s Audi SportQuattro making mincemeat of its tires and screaming its turbocharged head off. It reminded me of another video of a homebrew mini monster truck spraying a herd of Harleys with molten rubber.
At first glance it seems like the vehicles have nothing in common. The Audi is a tour de force of Teutonic technology. The monster truck is a homemade carnival ride. The Quattro has an über turbo with a waste gate that spits like a cobra. The mini monster has a supercharged big-block Ford V8 that’s so wicked it refuses to shut off.
But these beasts have much in common. Both have 600-ish horsepower. Both can make all four tires go critical in the blink of an eye. Both seem to have sprung fully formed from the fantasy of a 12-year-old boy.
So the question is: Which performs the better burnout?
Let’s say you live on an island, about the size of Wyoming, situated in the North Atlantic. Let’s also say that the island is volcanic, and has hot springs, mud pools, geothermal vents and mountains covering the interior. What do you do for fun if you’re a gear head? Why, build a big honkin’ V8 powered Jeep for hillclimbing, mud surfing and all pupose hoonage, that’s what.
Readers of Germany’s “Off Road” magazine have voted the Mercedes Benz Unimog as the number one vehicle for cross country travel. With capabilities like those shown above, it’s no wonder why.
I’ve always been a fan of the original FJ 40 series Land Cruisers, since they made no apologies for being a stout, well built truck that would get you anywhere you needed to go. Need to check the cows in the back pasture, but three feet of snow is in the way? No problem for the Toyota FJ. Want to climb the third Flatiron in Boulder, Colorado, but you’re out of shape? No worries, just make sure your FJ has a winch (for safety) and drive it up the face from eyebolt to eyebolt.
I’m pretty confident in my Toyota FJ Cruiser’s ability to get me into and out of places no sane man would travel, but the Chainlink Extreme puts the FJ to shame. Can you say “articulation”?
When I was covering the SEMA Extravaganza in Las Vegas, I have to tell you one thing; I wasn’t at all impressed by these types of trucks. I always thought they were over compensating for something (And get your mind out of the gutter!). There were at least 20 of these types of trucks, and to be truthful, I don’t even remember this particular truck. So when a video surfaced about a Custom Silverado built by the same guys who were associated with the famous “Bigfoot” truck that experienced a monumental failure, well I had to find it. And here it is…. only you will have to see it after the jump!
For those of you elitists with things like a “steady job” and “benefits,” you probably received a hefty Christmas bonus with your paycheck last month. The wisest move would be to invest it, but ask yourself this: can a high-yield savings account scale a vertical wall? Of course not, which means your most logical course of action would be to scour eBay high and low for the most impractical (and possibly by that very quality, totally badass) purchase. Since it was an excruciatingly slow news day, I took the liberty of doing it for you.
