Ripsaw EV2 - The Luxury Tank
by AllAutoExperts | 19 January, 2016
Despite the habitual abbreviation «EV», the car of the American company Howe and Howe isn't an electric one at all. The EV letters stand for Extreme Vehicle.
The first prototype drone submitted by the fellow inventors in 2001, aroused the interest of the US military and were even tested during the flights in Iraq.
Being relatively lightweight (about 4.5 tons) the non-armored vehicle was seen as a military patrol or a means of evacuation or even a conveyor for explosives. The tank has not yet been put into service, but the money allocated to the Howe brothers was very useful in the development of other unusual vehicles - both unmanned and manned.
In 2011, Howe and Howe demonstrated the first civilian "Extreme Machine» Ripsaw EV1: with an open body, which was actually a panel made of aviation aluminum and steel A440, hung on a framework of chromium tubes.
The 700hp diesel GM Duramax 6.6 engine was paired with a hydrostatic transmission that allowed 4.8 m vehicles to reach 80 km / h in 5.5 seconds! All of this was possible while the light tracks enriched with rubber elements gave phenomenal patency.
You could order however a more modest engine with power from 300 hp. The Tank is available at a price starting from 200 thousand dollars, and the drone could be nearly four times more expensive.
The current version of the Ripsaw EV2 is presented by Howe and Howe as a "luxury high-end super tank". Although it isn't a tank, of course, it being a high permeability and fast-tracked carrier "gull-wing" body and some comfort inside of it.
The price has not yet made public, but it will inevitably grow and will strongly depend on the particular machine configuration: each "tank" is harvested by hand-to-order, and the construction takes at least six months.
Check out the video for extra info on the EV!