Introducing the Ripsaw EV2 luxury tank… Yep, you read that right: A. Luxury. Tank.
Apparently, it’s the fastest dual tracked vehicle ever built and sports a 600HP 6.6L Duramax turbo-diesel motor mated to an Allison auto transmission that propels the 3.6 tonne behemoth from 0-100km/h with sports-car spec alacrity. It’s built by Howe and Howe Technologies in the USA and was initially designed for the military, but has since been refined and marketed towards people with deep pockets and who just aren’t getting enough butchness from their H1 Hummers.
Given the tracked set-up, which exerts very little downward pressure per square inch on the terrain, it’s built to skim over sand, snow and mud that would have more conventionally ‘tyred’ vehicles reaching for the winch. Speaking of, this bad boy has two of them, front and back should you find yourself with a lack of forward momentum.
As for water crossings, did we mention the fully sealed aerospace aluminium ‘hull’ is designed for full floatation? Plus the full complement of steel bar work means that it’s basically indestructible anyway.
The suspension is a mixture of coilovers and airshocks and allows over 13in of travel, which is pretty damn impressive if you ask us. open up the gullwing doors on either side and climb into the cockpit and you’re confronted with exactly what you’d expect the interior of a luxury tank to look like. LEDs everywhere, a steering wheel that looks like it was stolen from the Batmobile (the steering is actually electronic and only has a quarter turn to get full lock), and some switchgear to operate the sound system, A/C and heating controls. The seats are 8-way electronically adjustable leather and there’s an in-cab screen that hooks up to a camera so you can see out the back when reversing – handy when there’s no rear window – and to prevent you from backing over your neighbour’s Prius… Just quietly though, with a maximum side slope angle of 70 degrees, you totally could.
Each Ripsaw takes up to six months to build to your specific requirements so you’ll have plenty of time to plan the trips you can take this thing on. Imagine blasting up Big Red or up the Old Tele Track in this… sorry, I just got momentarily distracted with a stupidly big grin on my face for a sec there…
So how many zeroes will you have to put on the cheque? Each Ripsaw is built to the owner’s requirements, so costs will vary. But keep in mind that just one of the specially made rubber tank tracks costs about the same as a JK Jeep Wrangler, so the base price of $295,000 (USD) is to be expected. But what’s money compared with “accidentally” reversing over your neighbour’s Prius?
