What do you get when you combine a military truck and a Jeep? Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan did just that; and what did he get? A motor creature he believes to be the world’s largest SUV.
|The Independent | Called Dhabiyan, the monstrous 10-wheel vehicle is based on the Oshkosh M1075 military truck with a Jeep Wrangler annexed to it as a driver cabin. It is powered by a 600hp, 15.2-liter, 6-cylinder Caterpillar C15 diesel engine, weighs a whopping 24 tonnes and measures 10,8m in length, 2.5 meters in width, and 3.2 meters in height.
Dhabiyan was reportedly designed and built by Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, one of the most well-known car collectors in the United Arab Emirates.
The giant SUV was unveiled at a recent automotive show in Sharjah. The cost of production is confidential, but it wasn’t cheap.
Dhabiyan is one of the many expensive cars Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan has in his private collection, which he proudly showcases on Instagram. He is known as The Rainbow Sheikh, after one of his most impressive cars, a custom Mercedes S-class painted in all the colors of the rainbow, from the upholstery to the wheels.
The general online reaction to the unveiling of this gigantic SUV has been mixed. While some find the Dhabiyan’s size impressive, others describe it as a useless eccentricity, with bad front visibility because of its exceptionally long body, and poor suspension. Fuel consumption is an issue for a lot of people as well, but definitely not for The Rainbow Sheikh.
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