There is a moment in time that will remain etched in my memory forever. And that's when Travis Pastrana, aka one of my childhood heroes in the action sports arena, called me to do something sketchy.
We were out at Mid America Outdoors, a newly built action sports Mecca, where we were touring the facility, hanging with Travis and the rest of his crew of action sports degenerates, and having one of the best conversations/interviews I've ever had the pleasure of doing. But during the tour of the property, using Can-Am's Maverick X3s as our tour-carts, we ended up on a piece of the acreage with what, to my eyes, appeared to be a sheer wall. A rock cliff jutting out from the dirt hill behind it. Jagged, vertical, and basically looking like an insurmountable obstacle in our path.
My eyes went wide. Travis, however, gunned it and climbed the damn thing like a Rocky Mountain bighorn. And once we got back to the base of the cliff, he and I hopped out, took off our helmets, and with that quintessential Travis Pastrana shit-eating grin, said, "All right, you're up!"
I'd never really rock-crawled, but who am I to refuse Travis Pastrana? It just wasn't gonna happen. And so I did it, and it was properly fun. Ever since, I've paid more attention to the space. So when I saw Can-Am was bringing out a new Maverick R specifically designed for the task, I knew I had to talk about it.
Say hello to the Maverick R X rc.
For those who've been living under a rock, Can-Am's Maverick R was, up until quite recently, the most powerful production side-by-side on the planet—Kawasaki just claimed the title with the Teryx H2. At its core, however, it was a minitaurized trophy truck, as it had gobs of suspension travel, a 240-horsepower turbocharged engine, and all the prowess you'd need to conquer a desert race like Baja or Dakar. In other words, it's a hellion of a machine.
And since its introduction, it's been doing just that: racing, and going frightfully fast in the deserts, sand dunes, and on trails throughout the world. Yet, what makes it a good go-fast, take-names side-by-side doesn't necessarily translate to a great slow-speed, carefully-select-your-line rock crawling machine. That's why Can-Am took the platform and modified it for the job at hand.
The Maverick R X rc "package is the result of hard-earned knowledge from one of the toughest rock races in the world," i.e. King of the Hammers, a grueling rock/desert race out in the middle of California's deserts where folks go to test their machines and themselves, and routinely find both wanting for more. The Maverick R, however, in a modified guise, has won the damn thing already. And that's the basis of the X rc.
According to Can-Am, the X rc package comes with an Extra Low gear range, along with a Rock mode that changes up the tuning of the Maverick R's Smart-Lok differential. There are also 35-inch XPS Hammer King tires, a new heavy-duty plastic skid plate, A-arm protectors, rock sliders on both sides of the cab, and an anti-intrusion bar. The brand also threw in a Fox Racing steering damper just to ensure they don't get the wheel ripped out of their hands if/when they crossed some gnarly boulder field and get their line wrong.
As for price, the Maverick R X rc ain't cheap, no sir.
For the base model, with none of the optional extras, we're talking about $47,999. And that's just for the two-door. If you want a four-door, four-person Maverick R X rc, that'll jump to $51,499. Woof. Again, that's without all the fun bits, too, plus tax and title. It's a steep price of entry. But then again, so is building a Jeep that could conquer something like Johnson Valley.
But what do y'all think? Are you ready for a rock-crawling demon from Can-Am? Let me know in the comments below.
