Ripsaw reveals special edition ‘sports tank’

Daily Mail

It has been dubbed the first ‘sports tank’, boasting supercar performance on tank tracks.

Originally developed to help to military avoid IEDs, the Ripsaw ‘sports tank’ has become a hit with car enthusiasts.

Now, a new version has received a huge overhaul – and has been dubbed ‘the most obnoxious vehicle ever built’.   

The Ripsaw, developed by twin brothers Mike and Geoff Howe, both 40, from Maine-based company Howe and Howe technologies, has been around for several years in various forms.

Originally designed and built for the military as a light weight, go fast super tank, it found a second life as a luxury vehicle for well heeled car fans.

‘Since 2013, Howe and Howe Tech has spent thousands of man hours developing these beautiful yet rugged and refined consumer based Ripsaw chassis’s for the high end luxury market and extreme off-road enthusiast,’ the firm said.

‘From 16 inches of suspension travel, to luxurious interiors and up to 1500 horsepower, The Ripsaw platform is in league of its own when it comes to capability, speed, sheer adrenaline and luxury.’

The firm refuses to say how much each vehicle costs, but says they are ‘handcrafted, limited run, high end luxury tracked platforms developed for the public and extreme off road recreation.’

Each one takes up to 6 months to fabricate and can cost over half a million dollars.

The newest incarnation, the EV3-F1, is ‘the most extreme and most terrain dominant Ripsaw ever developed,’ the firm says.

‘Designed with up to 1500hp and an astonishing .2 hp/lbs power to weight ratio, with over 112 inches of track on the ground, the Ripsaw EV3-F1 stands as one of the world’s most exhilarating single seat off-road vehicles ever conceived.’

The original Ripsaw, which has a 650bhp engine , is a dual-tracked vehicle originally developed as an anti-IED platform for the military but is now mostly hired out for recreational purposes.

Mike said: ‘We started developing the Ripsaw in the 1990s, as we had been developing off-road technology and wanted to take it to the next level.

‘We decided to build a high speed track vehicle, like a really fast track vehicle that’s not slow like a regular tank – we knew that that had never been done before.’

The brothers developed their innovations to help police and the armed forces.

One of their most successful creations is the Swat Bot, which doubles as a robotic shield and a battering ram.

Geoff said: ‘The Swat Bot developed out of our existing technology for the US military.

‘In some of our military contracting we have been tasked with finding a robot, a walk behind IED defeat robot.

‘The original robot walks in front of the soldiers and digs the land up in front of them, ensuring the soldier doesn’t get blown up.

‘Our police officers put their lives on the line everyday and we wanted to give them that protection, so instead of carrying a shield and being laden down with weight, the swat bot does all that – it’s a fully operational shield as well as a door buster.’

According to their website, the Swat Bot serves as a ‘robotic ballistic shield, door breacher and vehicle and debris remover when the environment is deemed unsafe.’

When expanded, the shield stretches to 8ft (2.5 metres) wide, enough to offer ‘the operator and team adequate cover from gunfire and explosive scenarios.’

And the vehicle, which is collapsible for ease of transport and weighs 2,290lbs (1,040kg), can be started up in just five seconds.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5280847/Ripsaw-reveals-special-edition-sports-tank.html#ixzz54UgXvzvd
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