Rub’ al Khali, “The Empty Quarter”, is the vast sandy desert that borders Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. It’s 620 miles long by 310 miles wide, has dunes that crest over 800 feet high, and the heat is borderline oppressive. Picture Glamis, but while you’re wearing winter clothes, and you get the idea. Naturally, with sand and dunes being the predominant off-road feature, a lot of the car culture focuses on the dunes in Dubai. There are Nissan Patrols that pack anything from the stock inline six to 2,000 horsepower blown mills designed for clearing dunes. There are tons of lesser sport-utility vehicles from all over the world, but seeing a pre-runner 1972 Ford pickup in Dubai romp the dunes with only two wheel drive is a bit out there, even for an area known for “out there” in the automotive world.
If the truck looks familiar, it should: this was the Ford teased in Mike Musto’s video about the 1968 Ford Mustang that we ran a week or so ago. Khalid owns the truck as well, and just like the Mustang, it’s not meant to sit in the garage and look pretty. “Sloppy” is the Ford’s name and watching it romp through the dunes it’s anything but…with the suspension travel, rooster tails of dust, and the soundtrack of a pissed-off 302ci V8, it looks like someone found the color switch for old Baja footage. And from the video, at least, it looks like a reasonable build, not some mega-buck put-together. Could it have thousands of horsepower? Yes, but all that would do is dig two trenches in the sand until the framerails were resting on it. Instead, the Ford looks balanced out and useable, and as a result, fun as all get out.
I love it!
That front suspension is just brilliant!
And the front suspension is mostly stock!
Damn, that is one cool truck! Reminds me of PJ’s Big Oly Bronco.