Glamorous armor: from the "golden" armored personnel carrier to the "Cybertrack"
Greg Morris near his "golden" armored personnel carrier. Source: dailytelegraph.com.au
Australian fun
Unusual and bright to hold a wedding celebration? And that without the hateful snow-white limousines? Then to you in the Australian Minchinbury, where Greg Morris will rent a "gilded" armored personnel carrier. It is based on the British FV432, created back in the late 50s. The owner removed the upper part of the armored car, built a cabin with a passenger compartment and covered everything with bright paint, which made the tracked vehicle the name "Gold Rush". This is the only armored personnel carrier in Australia, admitted to public roads. For shocking on the roof, Morris built a semblance of an inhabited tower with a fake gun and a model of sighting optics.
According to the owner and creator of the glamorous armored personnel carrier, at first it was just a hobby, but now he has quite stable earnings. You can rent a caterpillar car with a driver (or rather, with a driver) for a wedding, party or just go for a drive. Inside the "golden" BTR, customers will find a multi-seat comfortable lounge, an expensive stereo system and a cinema. The cost of daily rent is 4000-5000 dollars. As you can see in the photographs, the tracks of the 12-ton Gold Rush are wearing rubber pads that protect the Australian asphalt. A solution that domestic organizers of parades on Red Square should learn.
Source: dailytelegraph.com.au
At Morris, this is not the only FV432 owned. The second managed to become famous in 2007, when a vengeful employee of a local telecom operator sat behind his levers. He managed to damage 15 telecommunication towers with a 20-ton machine and inflict 27 million damage on the company. The police against the rabid APC were helpless. In the end, he was just stuck on one of the destructible objects. Law enforcement officers could not stop the madman behind the levers, as his armored personnel carrier retained armor protection (which is why the car was occasionally used by Morris for filming in films and for photo shoots). As the owner assures, now on his cars there is a remote fuel shutdown system.
"The Source" for the "Gold Rush" - British FV432. Source: ru.wikipedia.org
Source: dailytelegraph.com.au
The presented example is not an exception to the trend of glamorization of armored vehicles. Currently, many automakers are participating in such games.
Market Review
Armored vehicles have always attracted with their masculinity and a sense of security, and sometimes even permissiveness on the roads. However, earlier, hidden booking of serial automobile equipment was in fashion. Machines in the factory or in a specialist were equipped with armor so that only a specialist could determine the purpose of the equipment from afar. Currently, the practice of hidden reservation of passenger vehicles has been preserved. Most qualitatively, it is made by units at car factories. For example, Mercedes is responsible for this Guard, and in Munich, BMW Security is engaged in hidden armor. But more and more people are appearing in the world who are ready to pay not just for protection, but also for a demonstration. For example, a couple of years ago, due to rampant crime, demand for armored vehicles in Mexico skyrocketed. At the same time, hidden booking machines are not particularly quoted there - the locals need exactly the “brutal” equipment, in which the armor plates are on display. On the one hand, this should be intimidating, and on the other, it will allow killers to prepare in advance for an assassination attempt and choose exactly the caliber against which the armored car will not stand. Covert reservation cars are to some extent deprived of this - not everyone will determine the level of protection of such equipment by eye.
Images from ballistic tests and an advertising photo shoot of the Invicto armored car from Brabus. Source: autoreview.ru
But, as you know, if there is demand, there will be an offer. One of the calmest (and freshest) incarnations of armored brutality is the German Invicto, built from Mercedes G-klasse. The Stuttgarters themselves were not particularly willing to book their Gelendvagenes earlier, delegating this to third-party companies. By the way, at one time the office was hanging armor on cars, very far from cars: Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. This time in Stuttgart, they decided that no one would do better than the Brabus studio. At the same time, an armored capsule is introduced into the body structure not after the construction of the car at the car factory, but even before that. This, by the way, saves a lot of civilian armored car and increases the reliability of protection. But the specifics of the tuning office Brabus has not gone anywhere. Invicto, or “Invincible,” came out with a bunch of external and internal unnecessary. On the roof there is a huge expeditionary trunk, powerful LED chandeliers and a lot of external jewelry. Inside, on request, you can install a night vision system (why is it ?!), as well as the front windows falling windows. Not only is the mechanism for lifting / lowering heavy glasses complex and expensive, but also the logic of the solution is debatable. An open window on a civilian armored car greatly discounts the very idea of protection.
Dartz Dictator. Source: autoreview.ru
Emblem Dartz. Source: ru.wikipedia.org
Not the most modest armored vehicles became famous and the Russian-Latvian Dartz Motors. Not only is the office producing extremely tasteless machines, it also declared itself the successor of Russo-Balt. They just say so: “Armored Tank-Automobile Plant (former Russo-Balt)”. On the site you can still see skillful speculations around Russian vodka and black caviar. At the heart of part of the armored cars is the Russian T-98 Combat, developed in St. Petersburg by Avtokad. The SUV is based on General Motors aggregates and, by and large, is the Russian analogue of Humvee. And if AutoCAD, which still produces various variations of the T-98, has not yet lost its sense of style, then Dartz at its base has gone far from this.
The domestic T-98 Combat can also be purchased in an armored version. Source: militaryarms.ru
In coloring, Dartz Prombron Dictator is very similar to the caterpillar wedding APC from Australia, only it can be booked according to the STANAG NATO L3 / 4 standard. And this allows you to withstand the bullet from the DShK. Sasha Baron Cohen drove around in the movie "Dictator". Dartz Prombron was also made in a special modification “for ladies” - they thought of this first in the world. Rumor has it that the configuration of the armored car was very frivolous accessories. Was at Dartz Motor storysmelling of even more black PR. Donald Trump about his inauguration was offered the project of a shocking "golden tramp car" - Trumpmobile. At the heart of this technique was the Mercedes-Benz GL-klasse, and the body was redone from its own Black Shark armored car. Trump, of course, ignored the opportunity to transfer to a freak.
Lithuanian fantasies on the theme of the first USA first person car. Source: autoreview.ru
Black Shark by Dartz based on Mercedes. Source: autoreview.ru
Six-wheeled armored Gelendvagen for Russia. Project Dartz. Source: drive.ru
Black Stallion and the triaxial open-top armored car: the latest Dartz designs. Source: motor.ru
Based on the American military helicopter in Latvia at the end of last year, the Black Stallion, perhaps the most organic car of the company, worked, if I may say so about the products of this company. But here you can order armored for B7 + "golden" armored car in the performance of Aladeen Edition. As well as the six-wheeled version, which for some reason is declared the heir to Russo-Balt with Lando bodies. It’s hard to understand why this armored monster has a soft folding top. Now the Dartz Black Alligator is approaching, obviously based on the Rolls-Royce SUV.
Is it worth mentioning that the cost of such machines often approaches one million dollars, and the equipment uses the most exotic materials? And, surprisingly, the company finds its customers on all continents.
Khokhloma and tanks
The glory of Dartz, obviously, haunts the Americans. In California, a few years ago, the Rezvani project was launched, designed to add army chic to the glamorous armor. The only Tank model is based on the Jeep Wrangler, which conditionally leads its family tree from the legendary Willis, and the engine can be installed from the crazy Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and even with boosting up to 1000 liters. from. The Rezvani Tank in the Military Edition version is armored in the B7 category, equipped with a thermal imager and a smoke jamming system. Gas masks are included in the standard equipment of the machine: they will allow, if something happens, to go through the infected area. But the main bonus (2,5 thousand dollars) was shielded electrical equipment that allows you to protect yourself from the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion. In the most sophisticated performance, this fierce armored car costs about 400 thousand dollars. The absurd redundancy of the functionality of this "Tank"Is amazing. Where does the landlord expect to use his technique?
Rezvani Tank in the Military Edition version costs from 259 thousand dollars. Source: rezvanimotors.com
The Canadian Inkas Armored, which had not previously been seen in the release of shocking cars, still released the six-seater Sentry Civilian, taking as a basis a police armored car. The chassis is provided from a Ford F-550 Super Duty pickup truck, the armor will protect against calibers of 7,62 (except for SVD with a heat-strengthened core), and the list of options has already become a gentleman's set night vision system, protection against chemical weapons and all-round cameras. A machine whose appearance is much worse than its potential is already available for order to everyone.
The F-550 base was used by the Chinese to create an ultra-expensive ($ 2 million) armored Karlmann King, whose appearance, in the authors' opinion, echoes invisible planes.
Karlmann King. Source: autonews.ru
Sentry Civilian by Inkas. Source: motor.ru
Conquest Knight XV at an exhibition in Monaco. A total of 100 armored vehicles were produced. Source: avtomaniya.com
Another machine from Canada, the appearance that should warn others about the potential of the owner, was the Conquest Knight XV. The armored car is designed for VIP transportation (not without reason one of the presentations took place in Monaco) and is finished inside with expensive materials. But the huge Conquest Evade, despite the chopped body shape, is not protected by armor, although it costs more than half a million dollars.
The real apotheosis of the hype around the bulletproof equipment was the prototype of the Tesla Cybertrack pickup, which protects passengers with some ultra-thin stainless steel armor. Elon Musk equipped the car with an electric drive. In the most “charged” version, Cybertrack accelerates to 100 km / h in 2,9 seconds. As can be seen in the illustrations, the “armor plates” are located on the machine at rational angles. Tesla is just getting ready for production, but judging by pre-orders, the United States can flood high-speed armored vehicles in a couple of years.
Tesla Cybertrack. Source: kod.ru
In Russia, with armored vehicles for civilian use, the situation is ambiguous. On the one hand, this is not the most developed market, since the solvency of potential customers is low, and on the other, there is an extensive range of decommissioned demilitarized armored vehicles. It is also worth considering that in Russia there is a shortage of its own engines and transmissions for VIP-class armored vehicles - the authors of the T98 Combat mentioned above were forced to use foreign components. Nevertheless, anyone can buy civilian “armor” from us. On the Rosrezerv's website, even recently, it was possible to purchase even the T-34, not to mention the BTR-80, BTR-KShM and BRDM-2 with dismantled weapons. But the most inexpensive armored car with a third protection class, suitable for civilian use, was the GAZ-2330 Tiger removed from storage - only 3,5 million rubles. Less adapted to ordinary life, the BTR-70 and BRDM-2, but having already passed club training, can be purchased for 850 thousand. Armor on such vehicles is no longer the main factor of choice. High maneuverability and unpretentiousness come to the fore.
Painted military equipment in the Patriot Park. Author photo
In accordance with the main topic of the article, devoted to “glamorizing” armored vehicles, it makes sense to give examples of painted military equipment in the Patriot Park. And although this exposition is intended primarily for adolescents, the very fact of combining the incongruous makes you think.
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