29
May 2026
Shannon Campbell needs no introduction, but if you need one, here it is: three-time King of the Hammers winner. Off-Road Hall of Fame inductee. World-class fabricator behind some of the most capable Ultra4 cars ever built — all through his shop, Coop Racing and Fabrication. And a longtime friend and Baja Designs driver.
We linked up with Shannon at Jeep Beach and got to check out his latest Jeep build, and while this one isn’t an Ultra4 race car, it’s built with the same design ethos. This is his CJ8 Scrambler: a full custom tube chassis  designed around an Aqualu Industries full aluminum CJ8 Scrambler body, complete with half doors and tailgate. This streamlines having to find a donor CJ8 and cut it apart when there were only 27,000 scramblers ever made.  
It was built for long weekend trail runs like the Rubicon or Sand Hollow— and despite looking like it was just built, it has already run the Rubcion. For overnight runs, a rooftop tent straps to the roof where it becomes part rock crawler, part overlander. Being a CJ8, it has plenty of room for camping gear and even has a fridge in the back. Shannon built something that could run the trail all day and still be comfortable enough to actually enjoy getting there and driving around town.
Under the hood sits a GM Performance 6.6L L8P V8 making 525 hp and 550 lb-ft of torque, managed through a Holley Dash ECU putting power down through a Hughes Performance Turbo 400 transmission and a Phenom 3.75 transfer case. LM1 axle housings carry ARB 10″ lockers front and rear, wrapped in 40×13.50 Nitto Trail Grappler tires and Vision wheels.
On the bumper is a Warn M8274-S built to match the classic aesthetic of the CJ8 Scrambler, and under that are four Squadron Pro Classics in Baja Amber. While this may look like it’s built like a race car, Shannon isn’t ripping across the desert at 100 mph like his Ultra4 car, so four Squadron Pros making 4,900 lumens per light is more than enough. Besides the amber rock lights running all the way around, an interesting lighting solution on this Jeep is the mounting of the Baja Designs S2 right inside the front fender to illuminate the front wheel area for rock crawling. 
The chassis has a 120-inch wheelbase, which gives this CJ8 a planted stance, especially on steep hills. Suspension it sits on is ADS with 14″ MBR shocks, paired with a double-triangulated 4-link up front and 4-link in the rear. AZ Driveshafts. Boat-side rock sliders protect the sides. This is something you would see in an Ultra4 race car or a rock buggy.
Every component choice  here reflects the same thought process that goes into building a race car because that’s the only way Shannon knows how to build. While we were able to see this Jeep on the shores of Daytona Beach, Florida, we can only hope the next time we see it is on the Rubicon Trail. 
If you want to see more about the Scrambler build you can check out the full build on Shannon’s YouTube channel where he documented it extensively.