posted Aug 13, 2014, 8:36 PM by Thor Fornica
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updated Aug 13, 2014, 9:21 PM
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HDT Storm is a multi-purpose search and rescue tactical vehicle (SRTV) designed and manufactured by HDT Global, for the US Air Force. HDT builds lightweight tactical specialty vehicles used by military personnel requiring superior performance, extended maneuverability and versatility.
Mission capabilities can be expanded with the used of these vehicles, when compared to routine tasks generally accomplished using conventional vehicles.
The HDT Storm SRTV, developed in conjunction with Special Operations Forces, is a highly mobile light-weight tactical vehicle that facilitates mission success in austere environments and that answers the previously unmet challenges these warfighters face.
The Storm SRTV ensures mission range, provides multi-role configurations, and can be transported internally by M/HC-130P/N/J, C-130/C-130J, KC-130J and C-17 fixed- wing aircraft as well as the CH-47 and CH-53 helicopters.
To further enhance mission capability, the vehicle can drive on and drive off these aircraft without shoring and can be deployed through low velocity aerial delivery or JPADS methods.
- The high performance mid-engine design with high horsepower (430 hp) provides ultimate performance, maneuverability and versatility
- Long travel suspension and optimized approach and departure angles
- Carries up to three litters, in rollover protection system (ROP), without modifications, while still maintaining 360° of weapon field of fire
- Cutting brakes allow U-turns on steep hills within the length and width of the vehicle and allow high speed J-turns
- Has a 20' (6.1 m) turning diameter curb to curb
- Performs at 10,000' (3048 m) above mean sea level with higher horsepower levels than competitive vehicles offer at sea level
- Can traverse terrain considered impassable to conventional vehicles, including vertical rock terrain
- Rollover safety for all occupants without limiting mission operational performance
- Extreme maneuverability in rugged environments
- Rapid evasive maneuverability in confined spaces
Content and images credits: HDT Global
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posted Nov 6, 2013, 7:04 AM by Memin Pinguine
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updated Nov 6, 2013, 7:05 AM
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Rescue by GHE-O, Romania’s answer to the Hummer prepares for the end of the world. 2x the size of a Hummer H1, Rescue is the ideal solution for, transportation; medical support and fire extinguish capabilities on an all form of terrain and weather.
With off road solutions borrowed from racing and with a close to competition philosophy the performance version Rescue is in fact despite their truck look a very capable all terrain solution rivaling with any small racing equipped sport car.
They can ad that because of the bigger wheels and mass distribution Rescue can outperform in most of the situation two seats off road car with the difference that can do that with eleven people on board.
The comparison between Rescue and off road racing just for a better understanding of the capabilities hidden under the general styling, in fact we can say that rescue have its own class.
With sizes like 5.200/2.700/2.390 and the weight of 3.2 tons rescue can have accessories like water pumps for firefighters, 620L water tank pneumatic pillows on wheels for a better floating on water or snow, tracks on rear wheels, on top cargo carrier (foldable), medical stretcher (with side door access), plow system, terratrip, gps.
The heavy duty transmission with lockable axles is powered by engines that can be on petrol (performance version) 340 to 500bhp, or diesel 218bhp or 304bhp, for military application the engines can have extra electromagnetic and water protection.
Content and images credits: GEH-O Motors Bucharest Romania
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posted Jun 23, 2013, 7:03 PM by Thor Fornica
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updated Jun 23, 2013, 7:04 PM
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Dash 1000 kilometer across the dry basin near Vryburg in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district of the North West Province of South Africa and in parts of Botswana. Seventy percent of the land-locked southern African country of Botswana is desert – the great Kalahari, 350,000 sq miles of yellow grasslands and dry, sandy plains. Since the 2009 decampment of Africa’s famously grueling Dakar Rally to South America, the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race has taken its place as the continent’s premier off-road endurance contest.
The event started in 1975 as the Total Trans-Kalahari Race, sponsored by Total, a French petroleum company.
But during the 1980s, a new obstacle arose: game farming. Vast tracts of savannah were being cordoned off as preserves for indigenous wildlife, making the task of route-planning increasingly difficult for race organizers. So in 1991, the Toyota 1000 headed back to the wide-open spaces of Botswana, with Toyota South Africa hanging in as lead sponsor.
For this year’s three-day race, which kicked off on 21 June with a 65km qualifying run, the favorites to win are drivers Duncan Vos and Rob Howie, leading a three-truck campaign from South Africa-based Castrol Team Toyota. The outfit, running Hilux 4x4 racing pickups, handily captured the checkered flag in 2012, garnering the drivers’, co-drivers’, and manufacturer’s off-road racing championships in the process.
“The Toyota Desert Race is the toughest challenge of its kind in southern Africa and it’s the round of the national championship we all want to win,” said Glyn Hall, principal of Castrol Team Toyota. “For [us], it’s particularly important because it’s sponsored by Toyota, for the past 32 years. This brings with it a certain amount of extra pressure for the team, so we have prepared accordingly.”
The village of Kumakwane serves as home base for the race, including the start/finish line and service park. Competitors that survive qualification will kick off bright and early on 22 June to run two loops, each about 230km, broken up by a 15-minute compulsory stop at the service park at Kumakwane. Survivors return Sunday morning to repeat the process. And the route, which is 90% new this year, is no mere country drive.
“The Saturday and Sunday routes offer technical tight sections, two rocky mountain passes, thick bush, sandy river beds and some spectacular river bank driving,” said race organizer Alan Reid.
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posted Feb 21, 2013, 5:05 PM by Thor Fornica
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updated Feb 21, 2013, 5:26 PM
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Rally driver Guerlain Chicherit has landed the first full back flip in a car, and he did it in a Mini. Chicherit pulled off the stunt at Tignes, France, the site of the 1992 Winter Olympics. He launched the customized John Cooper Works MINI off a static ramp (as opposed to one with moving elements to generate rotation), flipped over backwards, and stuck the landing on an enormous ramp made of snow.
The moment as rally driver became the first person to perform a 360-degree backflip in a car. French daredevil Guerlain Chicherit, 34, sped towards a 25ft high ramp in his specially built Mini Countryman at 37mph. He then hit the quarter-pipe and took off, soaring 75ft into the air and flipping his car a full 360 degrees backwards.
The professional stunt driver then landed rear wheels first on other side of the specially-made snow ramp the French ski resort of Tignes, in the Alps. Chicherit's jaw-dropping stunt was the result of four years of preparation as he became the first person to successfully backflip a car. He completed the first stunt in private on Sunday morning and then repeated the feat later in front of thousands of fans as a part of event set up by the Monster energy drink.
The rally star said: "Before the jump it was crazy. I was alone in the car before the start and I just had to do it, everything was ready. I had to arrive at 60kph [37mph] and be full throttle in the kicker to get the right rotation. In the jump, I knew the balance of the car was good and it took me maybe 20 seconds to realize I had landed on my wheels.
RedBull gives you wings - Monster Energy gives you balls!
"When you attempt something nobody has ever achieved before, the stress is really high but the only way is to just try it" Guerlain Chicherit said. He added, teasingly: "It wasn't the craziest thing I've ever done but for sure it's in the top three." and "It was sick - I just want to do it again."
The backflip had previously been attempted by other drivers but Chicherit became the first person to land safely after flipping the car. Guerlain, is best known to his countrymen as a professional rally driver, free-style skier and champion freerider. He made a second successful backflip attempt last night in front of a crowd of thousands as the sun went down over Tignes.
Credits: Images www.gravi-t.com |
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posted Dec 8, 2012, 1:18 AM by Thor Fornica
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updated Dec 8, 2012, 3:14 AM
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The question of whether the genes of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class dating from 1979 will still be asserting themselves in the distant future is being demonstrated by Mercedes-Benz in Los Angeles in the guise of a cool design study: the Ener-G-Force. According to Gorden Wagener, Head of Design at Mercedes-Benz Cars: “The Ener-G-Force is the vision of an off-roader that, while reflecting tomorrow’s adventures, also invokes the genes of the Mercedes-Benz off-road icon, the G model. Modern and cool, it could also be a clue about a new beginning for the off-road design idiom of Mercedes-Benz”.
Built as 1:1-scale model, the design study is clearly inspired by the G-Class but presents a radical reinterpretation of this classic that looks far into the future. Important genes such as proportions and design elements were adopted conceptually and completely redesigned and updated in a clean concept for tomorrow and beyond. While the clear design idiom of the G-Class has remained, all surfaces are designed to express intensity and tension. The meticulously executed details are also a clear indication that the Ener-G-Force is the product of modern times. Like the G-Class, the Ener-G-Force sports a front with an expressive radiator grille that incorporates the headlamps. LEDs in the headlamps form lamp units in the shape of a G. This gives the Ener-G-Force a strong, iconic appearance and demonstrates dominance. The front indicators and position lights are mounted on top of the wings as a significant G-Class element.
Thanks to alternative drive systems, the Ener-G-Force should also be exceptionally environmentally friendly and able to demonstrate enhanced green-car characteristics. Four wheel-hub motors, whose output for each individual wheel is adapted precisely to the respective terrain by high-performance electronics, are designed to provide the pulling power. The striking side skirts also house quick-change battery packs. Changes in the colour of the illumination of the side skirts indicate the operating and charge status of the energy packs. A roof carrier and additional lamps are integrated into the roof.
The design study shows that the off-road classic from Mercedes-Benz, whose continuous history goes all the way back to the 1970s, could in fact tackle the future in a stylistically and technologically advanced version.
A pure, rendered science-fiction; here’s the Mercedes-Benz’s environment-friendly, modern and cool SUV, the ‘Ener-G-Force’ which has been described to be the vision of an off-roader that, while reflecting tomorrow’s adventures, also invokes the genes of the German automaker’s 1979 off-road icon, the G-Class. Primarily based on the concept of a future police vehicle, this super-aggressive SUV was exclusively developed for the Los Angeles Design Challenge 2012, which looks towards future with a quest for the ‘Highway Patrol Vehicle 2025’.
However, this flight of fancy unveiled at the LA auto show is certainly not a teaser of something in the pipeline, rather, it’s a design study with enhanced green-car capabilities and off-road competence, capable of supporting future police and emergency services around the globe.
Described to also be a clue of Mercedes-Benz's future off-road design, the Ener-G-Force boasts small glass windows making this futuristic
police car a safe cocoon for law enforcement officers, fighting against all odds.
Further, special emergency lights have also been integrated into the roof, while the striking front leaves commanding presence of the law enforcement officers, and the gigantic wheels guarantee the right-of-way even in worst terrains.
It's powered with a fuel-cell engine for which it gathers water in roof tanks which is then ‘hydro-converted into hydrogen fuel on board.
This concept rides that uses 4-wheel hub motors and has lithium-ion battery storage is claimed to run about 500 miles.
Notably, it also uses high-end ‘terra-scan’ radar on its roof top, which helps identify the terrain and adapt the chassis setting to suit.
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