What happens when you spend over $1 million on a vehicle built specifically to dominate just one race on planet Earth, and then drop another $2-3 million into the logistics of ferrying that vehicle halfway around said planet to the starting line of the race, only to have the race organizer cancel the event at the 11th hour? You end up with Robby Gordon's Monster Energy-backed Hummer H3, a seven-figure showcar that's as much an exercise in frustration as it is a worthy Masterpiece in Metal.

With the last-minute cancellation of the 2008 Dakar Rally, Robby Gordons $1 million Monster Energy Hummer H3 became a racing refugee. The good news is that Gordon now has plans to contest the Central Europe Rally in Hungary.

Not that Gordon couldn't just drive this particular vehicle in something other than the 2008 Dakar Rally. In fact, Gordon and his legendary racing dad, Bob Gordon, have had a good time beating up previous incarnations of this vehicle in late-season races on the Baja peninsula after their mission on the African continent was complete. Yet, despite its Trophy-Truck aesthetic, no one in his right mind would ever consider building a copy of this Hummer just to race the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.

A license plate change is now in order.

Purpose-built to survive 16 days in one of the harshest environments known to man, Gordon's H3 is Trophy-Truck tough and street legal all at the same time, with working headlights, taillights and turn signals per FIA rules, even though the truck itself doesn't fit under FIA rules. Confused? It's like this: Gordon's H3 is Dakar-legal under the Group OP.1 (or Open 1) classification. OP.1 allows the truck to conform to another FIA-recognized rulebook–in this case, the SCORE rulebook–but due to its two-wheel drive configuration and unlimited suspension travel, it's restricted in other ways. The most severe of these is the 36.2mm intake restrictor through which the truck's GM factory-built, 427 cubic-inch LS7 engine gulps for air–talk about your buzz kills.

The interior of the Dakar Hummer appears similar to that of any Trophy-Truck–sans a GPS, per Dakar rules. Sparco seats and Simpson harnesses keep the occupants safe and comfortable over the long haul, while the Albins shifter is connected to an Albins sequential five-speed transaxle.

Ever the innovators, Gordon & Co. simply go where the rulebook doesn't, spending a mind boggling amount of money, time and energy on such R&D tricks as wind-tunnel testing and rolling-resistance testing to make their brick as slick as possible. In fact, some of the lessons learned from Gordon's Hummer program have actually been applied to his Trophy-Trucks, with positive results.