Khalzev Beaver

The Beaver is an extreme off-road competition prototype built by Sergei Khalzev of the Russian team Honduras Motorsport. It made its debut at the Ladoga Trophy, where it was entered simply as "Homemade". Its nickname reflects its ability to live in both bog and water. Unlike most self-built competition vehicles, it was built with no budget limit.

Design

The space-frame chassis was designed by computer and built in-house from specially made seamless thin-walled tubing. The upper body panels are carbon fibre and those below the waterline carbon-Kevlar. Shafts, bolts and even the Hi-Lift jack are titanium to save weight, and the tyres are cut down for the same reason. The finished vehicle weighs only about 1,500 kg despite 39-inch Bogger tyres.

A 3-litre Toyota Land Cruiser KZ diesel sits just behind the narrow cab, with a Toyota gearbox and transfer box on adapter plates. The front wheels use a custom double-wishbone suspension and a differential built from Volvo parts, with chain-driven portal hubs. There is no rear axle; the rear wheels are chain-driven, and the propulsion unit sits where the rear differential would be. The co-driver sits behind the driver, boat-fashion, for better balance afloat.

In the water

The Beaver floats. Two yacht bilge pumps clear water that enters through the winch-cable opening or damaged panels. A hydraulically adjustable flat nose acts as a rake to keep waves from destabilising it, and the rear unit, which Khalzev called a "water cannon", pushes it along at about 5 km/h.

Ladoga Trophy

Only 50 m into the 1,200 km event the Beaver hit two trees and broke a specially machined track-rod end, earning a maximum penalty for the stage. Despite having to drive carefully for the rest of the event, it still finished second.