Armored Russian SUV competes with Hummer

[NoPasaran]

You get respect with this," says Gennadi Lazurin, an aviation millionaire, as I drive his Kombat armoured tank-ette along the roads of St Petersburg. As frightened faces stare at me and our looming vehicle from their greying, battered Ladas, I see what he means.

The Kombat T-98 closely resembles a large Securicor van with lots of extra shiny knobs and lights. The car was designed to protect objects of vast wealth - namely Russian businessmen - from kidnapping, assassination, or estranged wives. The brainchild of Dmitri Parfenov (owner of the St Petersburg design factory Autokad), this Kombat is one of only nine in existence. Prices start at £82,000, rising to £180,000 for the most heavily armoured version, which can shrug off an anti-tank round. Autokad is now planning to make 100 of these luxury vehicles in the UK to compete with the American Hummer.

Gennadi, who's about six-feet tall and three-feet wide, has kindly agreed to let me test-drive his T-98, which can withstand incoming from a light Russian-made Makarov pistol (but not a Kalashnikov). The windows are about 5cm thick. They don't even wind down fully. It's like looking at fellow drivers through a riot shield. I had decided earlier that Gennadi is better off not knowing that I am an appalling driver, who wrote off a hire car and another car in America six years ago, and whose wife is reduced to trembling hysteria whenever he takes the wheel.

The sheer size of the Kombat is initially unnerving, but the St Petersburg highway clears before it, allowing the driver to enjoy the vast roar of the engine and surprising lightness of handling. On the asphalt, its brakes can take it from 50mph to a standstill in about 10m, easing some of my fears at being in charge of the SUV equivalent of a Challenger tank. The leather seats, Bose stereo, endless 4x4 controls around the wheel and clear lines of sight eased my heart rate, too - and, after about 15 minutes of driving on the highway, I had enough confidence to go as close to "off road" as is sensible.

-more-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1432509,00.html

[baldguy]

1. Is this worth $130,000?

[underpants]

2. Where is the extended air intake for high water crossings?

I see many vehicles right here in the city of Richmond (no joke intended) with the high air intake-most of them look like they have been really off road more than once too.

[baldguy]

4. Apparently, a snorkel is optional equipment.

But, hey! It's got 4-in thick armor-plated doors!

[underpants]

9. NICE parking job

Be wary of valets who hang out at the bar

[ET Awful]

3. I wouldn't own one, but I will give it credit for one thing

It looks cooler than a hummer :)

[GOPisEvil]

5. Wait...it won't stop rounds from an AK?

:wtf:

If this thing is for personal protection, wouldn't you want to at least be protected from the most popular assault rifle in the world?

:shrug:

[NoPasaran]

6. That's part of the optional vehicle protection plan

Ask your saleman

[GOPisEvil]

7. False sense of security - standard.

REAL security - optional.

Got it.

[underpants]

8. Yeah but how many AK's are there out there in the world?

I mean seriously what are your odds of running into someone with an AK?

:hide::scared:

[GOPisEvil]

10. Yeah, no random group of terrorists could get their hands on an AK.

I hear the sale of those things is tightly regulated. :sarcasm:

[NoPasaran]

11. Just having an AK won't do you any good

Unless you can somehow score some bullets for it. And what are the chances of that?

You might as well stick to playing MP3s.

http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/kalashnikov/Ak-mp3.asp

[GOPisEvil]

12. Oh yeah, bullets are so hard to come by.

But if you can't get bullets, then play the mp3 really loud. Maybe the driver will get scared and hit a tree.