Low Buck Challenge

The Challenge
We'll give you until December 15, 2003 to build your interpretation of the coolest sport truck and enter it in our contest. The catch is you'll be limited to a budget of $5500 not including the purchase price of your rig. Once you build it, a panel of automotive industry experts will judge your design and execution prowess. We'll be judging on originality, artistic whole, engineering balance, style, texture, and a whole bunch of other fancy designer words and categories.

The Rewards
If you manage to follow all the rules and build one outrageous truck, we'll spread your achievement over all of truckdom. The winner gets a major feature in Sport Truck Magazine plus a few special considerations to be announced. But even if you don't win the Sport Truck $5500 Builder's Challenge, we'll have plenty of other awards and prizes for our runners up.

The Rules
1. Any make and model year truck up to 1998. We're putting a cap of $10,000 for base truck. We'll use the Kelly Blue Book value as well as fair market value determined by our experts to check your stated cost. We're trying to have a fair start of the race with this rule, so play nice.

2. The build has to begin with a stock truck. If you've already begun building a sport truck no worries, just add the retail value of the parts already on truck that you plan to keep as part of your build. For example it you buy it with a set of aluminum wheels and keep the wheels you'll have to figure the fair market value of the wheels. If you replace the wheels use that figure. (hey this is starting to sound like a tax return.)

3. The total budget for the build is $5500.

4. Painting cost comes out of $5500 budget. We'll apply a "Fair Hour Value" for home paint jobs as determined by our panel of experts.

5. If a shop installs the parts then the cost of the labor comes out of the budget at a fair labor rate. For example don't try to tell us the shop did 300 hours of work for $300.

6. Junkyard parts will be appraised at fair market value by our panel.

7. No selling off stock parts or parts that came on the truck to offset the $5500 budget.

8. Judges have final say. Anything that does not conform to the rules will be cause for disqualification. So play nice and have fun.

9. Trucks must have current registration and be fully operational.

How to Enter
Entry is by application via snail mail. We're not accepting email applications. Fill out the entry form below and send it to the address listed and include the following:

Images that substantiate the condition of your truck before you begin building. For example include a front 3/4 angle, a rear 3/4 angle, engine bay, interior, and undercarriage.

When you complete the build you need to send us documentation with images. At a minimum retake the images you created on your entry: A front 3/4 angle, rear 3/4 angle, engine bay, interior, and undercarriage. Also include receipts for parts and labor.

One final note, we have to receive your completion documents post marked no later than 12/15/03.

That's it. Those are the rules to our first ever Sport Truck Magazine $5500 Builder's Challenge. We wish you luck and are looking forward to seeing your creativity, craftsmanship, and unique style.

Don't want to destroy your issue of Sport Truck to send in the entry form? Click here for a .pdf version.