Project Serious Threat
(July '90-Mar. '92)
Truck: '90 Ford F-150
Theme: The truck would "evolve into one well-built contender."
Some Upgrades: Supercharger, 9-inch rear, Air Locker, 33-inch tires, tow package, add-a-leaves
While the project part of this truck didn't actually debut until the August issue, July's appearance was a standard road test in order to compare how its future modifications would affect performance. "All mostly stripped 4x4s can benefit from a little tweaking here and there, but before one marches blindly into a building frenzy, the basic truck should be examined and tested to discover exactly how to enhance it." Hey, there's a breakthrough...don't just throw random parts at a truck because you can.
There was a problem with its simplicity, though: The Feb. '91 issue noted, "Project Serious Threat is gaining a reputation for running up a serious bill." Precisely one year later, in the Feb. '92 issue, 4WOR claimed, "Serious Threat has been conspicuously absent from the pages of this magazine for a couple of issues." In fact, it dragged on for so long, the truck logged 20,000 miles just while being built up.
Project Rock Truggy
(Feb. '01-Apr. '01)
Truck: '85 Toyota pickup
Theme: "Build the ultimate Toyota rockcrawler."
Some Upgrades: Four-link rear, three-link front, fiberglass body, 109:1 crawl ratio, tubing, twin-stick transfer case
"I don't like to be strong-armed into doing something I'm against with one of my projects. If I didn't have faith in [the builder's] taste, vision, and skill, I really don't think I would've continued with the project in the magazine. I think that's how a lot of half-assed project vehicles get built." That's former technical editor Christian Hazel, who oversaw Rock Truggy. This was pretty groundbreaking at the time. "It was done at the onset of the hybrid/trail buggy phenomenon, in which a crazy trail rig is built out of something that started as a stock vehicle. Nowadays, they just start out with a bunch of tube and make it from scratch. It's really less work in the long run that way. Again, indicative of the time in which it was built," he explained. From a logical standpoint, if you have ultralow gearing, you don't need loads of power, and if things are kept lightweight, smaller axles and drivetrain components will work: "Small weight, small power, and smaller rubber mean big performance off road," the story suggested. Christian recalled having to redo the front suspension more than once. "They built it, and the geometry just wasn't going to work. Too much factory frame and crossmember in the way. I remember being surprised at how readily they could just scrap a week or two worth of fabrication and engineering."
14-Day Flattie
(Aug.-Oct. '00)
Truck: '46 CJ-2A
Theme: "With a fairly worthless Flatfender in the garage, we set out to build a killer Jeep in record time."
Some Upgrades: Total frame-off buildup, including small-block Chevy and 35-inch rubber
"We thought that the six weeks we had allotted to building the 4xQuad would be more than enough for our Jeep buildup." While 14 days sounds insane (probably because it is), knowing that it was built in the driveway by three staffers (Editor Cole Quinnell, John Cappa, and fairly new hire Christian Hazel) may seem downright mental. Cole recalled that planning the buildup in advance actually resulted in them never pulling an all-nighter, even with that hyper timeframe.
He did have regrets after-the steering-box-mount on the frame was inadequate and he hated the transmission mount they fabricated because it hangs 2 inches lower than it needs to and gets stuck on every rock. And many readers became familiar with the flattie's never-ending overheating problems, but overall it was deemed a success. One flashback Cole had: "I'd make a list throughout the day of stuff I'd need to have FedEx'd the next day. It probably cost as much in FedEx as it did in actual components."