The Trophy Rat builds the rockabilly aesthetic of a derelict hot rod around a beast off-road shock and wheel setup. Add a big honking V8 and you’ve got yourself a drivable caricature guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

YouTuber describes the Trophy Rat as “the first performance based desert truck underneath a ’37 International shell with a rat rod stance.”

writes that the truck was actually built around a “5.7L GM LS6 aluminum-block V8 engine that was headed for the metal recycler” which Trophy Rat fabricator Keith Northrup originally wanted to rebuild and put in a Porsche Cayman.

Apparently those plans changed when Northrup got a call from a Tyler Anthony, who was “cutting loose some projects” including this 1937 International truck “Northrup had been eyeing for long time.”

The frame is scratch-built, mostly from 1 ¾-inch tubing that’s also used to build Ultra4 desert/rock-crawling race cars.

2.5 King coilover shocks give the wheels 14 inches of vertical travel, a bit more than a stock Ford Raptor. Though the wide track gives the truck the appearance of sitting pretty low to the ground. The truck’s also chopped four inches, making it look even squatter. The finished rig weighs about 3,600 pounds.

“The goal behind the build was to have a hot rod, rat rod, trophy truck, and road-worthy toy all in one,” Northrup told DrivingLine.

It probably couldn’t quite keep up with Robby Gordon in Baja but it certainly looks like a riot. Stay tuned for more videos of the Trophy Rat in action soon.