Junkyard Gem: 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe, Rocky Mountain Rambler 500 Edition

An apocalyptically modified 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe that ran in the Rocky Mountain Rambler 500 off-road rally, found in a Denver-area wrecking yard.

My home state of Colorado is host to multiple wild road-and/or-off-road rallies featuring amusingly modified hoopties doing things they were never designed for. There's the Lemons Rally, the Gambler 500 and the Rocky Mountain Rambler 500, to name a few, and — as you'd expect — many of the participating vehicles wind up in the Front Range boneyards that I frequent. Today, we'll be looking at a Rocky Mountain Rambler 500 veteran that looks like it just rumbled off the set of a Mad Max movie.

So far in this series, I've documented a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed 1996 Acura RL from the Rambler, an Astroturf-covered 2008 Volkswagen R32 from the Rambler and a "Good Vibes" 2005 Pontiac Vibe from the Gambler.

The functional glasspack-topped dual stack exhaust must have sounded mean. It certainly looks right.

The rattling and clanging of chains must have been an impressive accompaniment to the roaring V8 noise.

There's still a bit of Tahoe recognizable inside, even with the extensive body chop.

It went out in a blaze of rally glory. Now, The Crusher awaits.

Just as the Beastie Boys did a few years earlier, Chevy Tahoe marketers sampled the Gyuto Monks for this commercial.

The original buyer of this truck probably never imagined that it would be doing this a quarter-century later.

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