FIRE ANT

FIRE ANT: THE CURRIE-BUILT JEEP THAT TURNED COMPETITION INTO DEVELOPMENT

When organized rock crawling began taking shape in the late 1990s, Currie Enterprises did not enter the sport with a one-off prototype built solely to win trophies. The Currie family entered with a Jeep equipped with the same parts the company offered its customers.

That approach would eventually produce Fire Ant—a purpose-built Jeep TJ that combined Currie’s production components with increasingly sophisticated competition technology. Fire Ant became a championship-winning vehicle, but its influence reached far beyond its results. It served as a rolling laboratory for products and ideas that helped shape the future of Currie Enterprises, RockJock and competitive rock crawling.

 

THE ROAD TO FIRE ANT

In 1998, Frank and John Currie entered the first professional rock-crawling competition in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Their vehicle was a street-legal 1998 Jeep TJ Wrangler called Rocky Road.

Rocky Road was equipped with Currie High-Pinion 9-inch front and rear differentials, Johnny Joint control arms, Currie’s triangulated rear suspension and an experimental new sway-bar system that would become the Antirock.

Nearly everything on the Jeep was already available in the Currie catalog. The Antirock was the major exception—it was still being developed.

Frank spotted for John during the competition, and the team finished second overall. Jeff “Rookie” Waggoner won the event in a Currie-equipped CJ.

Rocky Road remained remarkably close to a trail-driven Jeep throughout the following seasons. It retained the factory TJ wheelbase, ran 35-inch tires and was street legal. Currie deliberately avoided transforming it into a specialized competition vehicle. The goal was to test products customers could purchase from the company’s catalog.

During the 2000 Goodyear Extreme Rock Crawling Championship Series, the Currie team finished second overall. It became the first Jeep TJ to finish in the top ten at an ARCA event and demonstrated that a production-based Wrangler equipped with carefully designed suspension and drivetrain components could compete at the highest level.

But the sport was changing quickly. To remain at the front, Currie needed something more specialized.

Fire Ant was the answer.

 

BUILT FOR THE 2001 SEASON

Currie Enterprises announced Fire Ant in the fall of 2000 as its new vehicle for the 2001 ARCA season.

It remained recognizably a Jeep TJ, but underneath its narrowed red body was a purpose-built competition platform. The original Currie announcement declared that Fire Ant was “all Currie under that red shell.”

Where Rocky Road had been used to prove the strength of catalog components in a street-legal vehicle, Fire Ant allowed John Currie and his team to push those ideas much further.

The Jeep’s body was narrowed approximately **6½ inches** compared with a stock TJ. This allowed Fire Ant to pass through tight gates and place its tires closer to obstacles without allowing the body to contact the course boundaries.

A stock TJ’s approximately 94-inch wheelbase was considered for extension to approximately **100 inches**. The longer wheelbase would improve stability on steep climbs and descents while remaining short enough to maneuver through the exceptionally tight courses of early professional rock crawling.

The result was a Jeep that retained the identity of a TJ while adopting the proportions of a dedicated competition machine.

 

A JEEP V8 POWERTRAIN

Fire Ant was powered by a **4.7-liter Jeep PowerTech V8**, sourced from the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Using the 4.7-liter engine kept the vehicle within the DaimlerChrysler and Jeep family while providing considerably more power and torque than the TJ’s original inline-six. It was backed by a **four-speed automatic transmission**, allowing the driver to maintain controlled and uninterrupted power delivery during technical climbs.

Behind the transmission was an **Atlas II transfer case with a 3:1 low-range ratio**.

That drivetrain gave Fire Ant the controlled low-speed power needed for technical rock crawling while retaining enough wheel speed to attack ledges and vertical climbs. The automatic transmission also allowed the driver to concentrate on steering, throttle control and tire placement without interrupting momentum to operate a clutch.

 

CURRIE AXLE AND STEERING TECHNOLOGY

As would be expected from a vehicle built by Currie Enterprises, Fire Ant’s axle and suspension systems were central to its design.

The original specifications identified an **Extreme Duty one-ton knuckle front end**, which Currie described at the time as a new product. The heavy-duty front assembly was developed to withstand the steering loads, tire leverage and shock loading generated in professional rock crawling.

Fire Ant also used **AGR ram-assist steering**. Hydraulic assistance reduced steering effort and helped the driver turn the 37-inch tires when they were bound against rocks or carrying much of the vehicle’s weight.

The steering and axle components did more than support Fire Ant’s competition program. They gave Currie a severe real-world testing environment in which to develop products for customers. Obstacles that could bend steering linkage, damage joints or overload axle components exposed weaknesses quickly.

Competition became accelerated product development.

 

SUSPENSION AND THE “SECRET WEAPON”

Fire Ant rode on coilover suspension and was designed around an approximate **60-percent front and 40-percent rear weight distribution**.

The coilovers gave the team greater control over spring rate, ride height, wheel travel and suspension response than a conventional production spring arrangement. They also allowed the suspension to be packaged around Fire Ant’s narrowed body and competition-specific chassis.

The vehicle incorporated Currie suspension technology, including Johnny Joints and Antirock sway bars. Running an Antirock system allowed the axles to articulate while maintaining controlled resistance to body roll. Instead of disconnecting the sway bars to obtain maximum articulation, the team could retain predictable suspension balance throughout the course.

John Currie also developed an air-activated front suspension pull-down system that the team called its **“secret weapon.”**

On a steep climb, a rock crawler’s front suspension naturally unloads as weight transfers toward the rear. The front end rises, steering becomes less effective and the vehicle becomes increasingly vulnerable to rolling backward.

Currie’s pull-down system allowed the team to compress or restrain the front suspension. Pulling the nose down helped maintain a lower center of gravity, kept weight on the front tires and increased stability on severe climbs.

The concept anticipated the winch-down and suspension-control systems that would later become common on advanced rock crawlers. Like many Currie innovations, it emerged from solving an immediate competition problem and evolved into knowledge that could be applied to future vehicles and products.

 

NARROW BODY, LONGER STANCE AND 37-INCH TIRES

Fire Ant ran **37x12.50 Goodyear Wrangler MT tires**.

At the time, 37-inch tires represented a substantial step beyond the 35s used on Rocky Road. They provided additional ground clearance, improved approach to vertical ledges and created a larger contact patch on sandstone and other technical terrain.

The tire size was balanced against the vehicle’s narrow body and approximately 100-inch target wheelbase. Fire Ant was not simply built as tall as possible. Its proportions were chosen to combine clearance, stability and maneuverability.

The narrowed grille and body made Fire Ant immediately recognizable. It looked like a Jeep TJ that had been compressed around its drivetrain—smaller, leaner and more aggressive.

The name fit the vehicle. Like its namesake, Fire Ant was compact, red and capable of delivering a painful surprise to anything that underestimated it.

 

A TEAM EFFORT

Fire Ant was closely associated with John Currie, but its success came through the partnership between John and Jeff “Rookie” Waggoner.

The two alternated responsibilities as driver and spotter. At the 2001 Cedar City competition, John drove Fire Ant to third place—the team’s best event finish to that point. At the championship finals in Farmington, New Mexico, Waggoner took the driver’s seat while John served as spotter.

In early rock crawling, the spotter’s job involved considerably more than calling tire placement. Spotters worked physically with ropes, suspension controls and vehicle balance while directing drivers through gates that allowed almost no margin for error.

The partnership between John and Jeff combined driving ability, mechanical understanding and a shared willingness to continually refine the vehicle.

Together, the Currie team dominated an important period in early professional rock crawling and earned championships in Currie-built vehicles, including Rocky Road and Fire Ant.

 

THE 2001 CHAMPIONSHIP

Fire Ant carried John Currie and the Currie team to the **2001 ARCA Extreme Rock Crawling Championship Series title**.

That championship represented the culmination of the development program that began with Rocky Road in 1998. In just a few seasons, Currie had progressed from entering a nearly stock-wheelbase, street-legal TJ to building one of the most technically advanced Jeep-based crawlers in the sport.

After earning the championship, John stepped away from professional rock-crawling competition to focus on Currie Enterprises, product development and the growing RockJock product line.

The lessons learned through Fire Ant did not remain with the competition vehicle. They informed the company’s suspension systems, steering products, axle assemblies, Johnny Joints and Antirock sway bars.

 

A DIFFERENT KIND OF REVOLUTION

Fire Ant’s importance is different from that of a vehicle such as Jon Nelson’s Tiny.

Tiny demonstrated that a rock crawler no longer needed to resemble a production vehicle. It helped establish the lightweight, single-seat moon-buggy formula.

Fire Ant demonstrated how far the Jeep platform itself could be pushed.

It retained the visual identity and fundamental architecture of a Jeep TJ while incorporating a V8, automatic transmission, Atlas transfer case, narrowed body, extended wheelbase, coilover suspension, one-ton front-end components, hydraulic steering assistance and active front-suspension control.

Fire Ant stood between two eras. It was still recognizably a Jeep, but it incorporated many of the ideas that would define later purpose-built crawlers.

It also connected competition directly to the customer. Currie was not racing only for trophies. The company was using competition to expose parts to stresses that ordinary testing could not reproduce.

If a component survived with Fire Ant, Currie knew it could be trusted on the trail.

 

AN INCOMPLETE FINAL BUILD RECORD

The original Currie announcement provides an unusually valuable record of Fire Ant’s intended specifications before the 2001 season:

* Narrowed Jeep TJ body
* Approximately 6½ inches narrower than stock
* Target wheelbase of approximately 100 inches
* Jeep 4.7-liter PowerTech V8
* Four-speed automatic transmission
* Atlas II transfer case with 3:1 low range
* Currie Extreme Duty one-ton knuckle front end
* AGR ram-assist steering
* Coilover suspension
* Approximately 60/40 front-to-rear weight distribution
* 37x12.50 Goodyear Wrangler MT tires
* Currie suspension and axle technology
* Air-activated front suspension pull-down system

Some final competition specifications still need confirmation from John Currie, Brian Shephard or Currie’s surviving build records. These include the completed wheelbase, exact axle models and gear ratios, locker configuration, coilover manufacturer and travel, chassis material, finished weight and any changes made during the 2001 season.

Because Fire Ant was continually developed, its final championship configuration may have differed from the vehicle described in Currie’s pre-season announcement.

 

FIRE ANT’S LASTING LEGACY

Fire Ant was created during a period when professional rock crawling was advancing at an extraordinary pace. Each event introduced steeper climbs, tighter gates and more specialized vehicles.

Currie Enterprises responded by building a Jeep that was narrower, more powerful, more stable and more controllable than its predecessor. Fire Ant combined the company’s strongest production components with new ideas developed specifically for competition.

It delivered a championship, but that was only part of its legacy.

The vehicle helped validate the Antirock sway bar, Johnny Joint suspension technology, heavy-duty steering components, Currie axle systems and active suspension-control concepts. Those lessons continued into later Currie vehicles and products used by generations of Jeep owners and competitors.

Fire Ant proved that competition could be more than a contest. It could be a laboratory.

By turning one of the earliest professional rock-crawling programs into a disciplined cycle of design, testing, failure and improvement, John Currie and Currie Enterprises helped establish the relationship between racing and product development that continues to drive the off-road industry today.