The work is done, the time has come, and your rock buggy is waiting. For the past few months the talented fabricators at Avalanche Engineering have been assembling a rock-hungry beast and it's now time to look for a new home. If you haven't been paying attention, BFGoodrich-in conjunction with Avalanche Engineering and Dynatrac Axles-has put together a competition-ready rockcrawler, the Karnivore, and we are going to give it to one lucky reader. This full-tube-chassised rock buggy is a clone of competitor John Gileland's rig that he is driving this 2003 season. The buggy is built on an Avalanche Zero-G chassis and stuffed with plenty of good components, including Dynatrac Pro-rock 60s, Sway-A-Way coilover shocks, and an Atlas transfer case from Advance Adapters. This rig is not a street-legal buggy, but it does come with a set of the new 37-inch BFGoodrich Krawler tires.
We are actually having a hard time giving this thing away. Not because no one wants it, but because we really want to keep it. If you consider that it's running a GM 350 crate motor and has a set of Beard seats from where you'll be controlling the fully hydraulic steering and TH350 automatic transmission, you can see why we would be hesitant to let it out of our grasp. Though the miniature Hummer H2 body panels and Lamborghini (yes Lamborghini) orange paint may seem right at home on the nearby streets of Beverly Hills, we must remind you that this is an off-road-only vehicle. However it will impress billionaires and hillbillies alike with what it can do on the rocks, with you behind the wheel of course.
We made it out to the Avalanche shop outside of Durango, Colorado, to capture the final assembly on film. Luckily we got there right before BFGoodrich grabbed the Karnivore for an advertising photo shoot (watch their ads for your buggy). In addition, BFGoodrich will be taking the rig to many of the rockcrawling events put on by various organizations this year, so keep an eye out for it there. Visit our Web site (www.4wheeloffroad.com) and follow the BFGoodrich link to enter the sweepstakes, and maybe it could be you who gets to take delivery of this ready-to-compete buggy at this year's World Championship SuperCrawl, September 24-27.