It’s rare to build a rig as radical as the one above and not fight gremlins on the maiden voyage. These common new build bugs didn’t plague Fred Williams and his Spider 9 powered Ultimate Adventure JK though. Eight days of hard wheeling and his new machine drove home without a single broken part. So very awesome.
Ultra4 racer, and GenRight founder, Tony Pellegrino has been taking to the trails lately. We’ve seen him travel just about coast to coast for the last year, or more, hitting every trail in sight. His latest stop? This year’s Ultimate Adventure of course. Here he is taking an awesome line, off the edge of a small waterfall, near the half way point from Saturday’s Idaho trail ride.
Nearing the end of Compressor Creek, Saturday’s Ultimate Adventure trail in Idaho, rigs had to negotiate their way through criss crossing trees while maintaining traction on a stream that ran right in the middle of it all. Needless to say, this trail was a big hit.
We were introduced to Tim Hardy back in 1996, which marked our first trip out to Moab. Back then, being hardcore Samurai guys ourselves, Tim was a bit of an idol for us. Fast forward 16 years, and he’s still one of our idols. His famous red Samurai is virtually unchanged from years past, sporting 35″ tires and a slew of homebrew Hardy inventions like upgraded front axles & birfield drive shafts. While he’s sporting a “few” dents collected over the past 16+ years, there’s still one straight piece of metal on the top vent where the hood meets the firewall. Tim seems pretty determined to change that, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Tim’s been with Ultimate Adventure for 11 seasons now. Safe to say he’s a regular with this group.
While the happy faces on the head rests were there to fool you, the red “headlights” should be the dead giveaway. Yes, this is the BACK of the Ultimate Adventure JK, complete with Spider 9 rear steer axle, Warn winch, grill, and hood which serves as a trunk. Lovers and haters will battle this one out for decades, which was exactly what its builder, Fred Williams of Petersen’s 4Wheel & Off-Road, was after. A JK that looks like no other, that turns heads on road and is unstoppable off-road. Watching this JK drive on the highway and then conquer the trails of Idaho with ease we can say with certainty, mission accomplished.
