Is This The Safest Car In The World?
by AllAutoExperts | 20 January, 2016
The Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was considered a passionate car enthusiast and an innovator in the automotive industry.
That being said, he decided to build a car and then show it to the entire world. In 2009 he presented the "Libyan Rocket", officially called Saroukh el-Jamahiriya. The event took place at a conference organized by the African Union.
"The Libyan Rocket" had an odd shape, the nose, and the back being a combination between a rocket and a Japanese model from 2025. The car fits 5 people and was powered by a V6 engine. The engine produced 230 hp. The car was presented by the dictator as the "the safest car in the world".
Gaddafi claimed that it was his care for people and the fact that he was alarmed by the high number of accidents on the Libyan roads that made him create such a car.
"The leader has spent many hours of his valuable time seeking an effective solution," said the dictator's spokesman. How safe was the Libyan Rocket? No one knows for sure, because it was never the subject of an independent test.
However, the car was equipped with airbags, an "electronic defense system - (no one knew what that meant) and a front bumper and rear shocks absorbers that should have acted very efficiently in case of an accident.
This prototype was built by Tesco TS, an Italian company, and the manufacturing costs reached 2.85 million dollars. The model was to be produced at a factory in Tripoli, which was still planned to be built. However, the plans died along with Gaddafi.