We spend countless hours scouring the globe, looking for cool cars to bring our readers. What always gets us going are unique ideas, things we haven’t seen before, or the execution of ideas that we hadn’t really thought much about.
[1]
Gary Dunsworth had one such idea. Years ago, while traveling to visit his daughter and son-in-law for the Christmas holiday, Gary’s son-in-law Rob Fife showed him an old car that could be used for a project. The car was a 1935 Dodge, sitting in a pasture, buried to the axles in the mud.
[2]Dusworth at the time was looking for a rat rod project to tinker with. He wasn’t looking to build just any rat rod though. He wanted a four door, four-wheel drive rat, that would be just at home slinging mud on the trails as it would be cruising the streets of his hometown in Enid, Oklahoma.
Dunsworth himself is an engine builder, operating Dunsworth Machine in Enid, Oklahoma, and Fife – his son in law, is also a master fabricator for Gunner Fab in Kerrville, Texas. The two allied their skills to construct this one-of-a-kind fusion of rat rod soul and attitude with the capability of a trail ready 4×4.
The rat is riding on 44-inch tires in the rear and 39-inch mudders up front, and features a custom air suspension that takes the suspension from laid out and frame dragging, to rock crawling at the flip of a switch. The chassis is all custom, built by Fife at Gunner Fab. The ’35 Dodge body is also heavily modified to clearance the massive tires. It’s all powered by an aluminum 412 cubic inch LS engine cranking out 530 hp at the flywheel. As the video demonstrates, this rat is just as capable off road or in the mud, as it is comfortable cruising through the local drive thru.
[3]
[4]
This melding of off road and rat rodding gives us lots of dangerous ideas. We have to wonder if there’s anyone else out there with a rat rod four-wheel drive that’s anywhere close to this one. We’ll be on the lookout, but until then, enjoy the video of Dunsworth tearing through the mud in his low down, dirty rat.