Ready for war!

TAV GURKHA

Alright there are plenty of mean streets left in the boroughs but this didn't seem like one of them. Most of the houses didn't have bars on the first floor windows, the streets were dusty but clean, the cars weren't vandalized and there wasn't any graffiti. However I passed by this monster one day on the streets of Brooklyn:

Okay, WHAT? I guess a Hummvee wasn't enough so somebody has decided to use a full-blown military grade armored assault vehicle as their daily driver? Sure looks like it!

It took a lot of blind searching (as I know 0.00% about armored cars) but I'm confident that this is a Gurkha by Terradyne Armored Vehicles. This was built as a military/law enforcement LPV (Light Armored Patrol vehicle) for use in extreme cases of heading directly into danger. You can just throw grenades at this truck and it will remain ready to roll.

A logo of a snail with a dollar sign shell crapping money will always look right at home.

These were all built on the Ford F550 chassis, powered by the 6.7L Powerstroke V8, and all were 4 wheel drive. Despite the monumental 19,000lb weight this is rated for a top speed of 93mph. I'm certain fuel economy is deep in the single digits! The opening price for one of these is $300,000 though I'm sure it's cheaper at a surplus auction. The factory is located in Ontario, Canada.

The reason some mook out in the Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn owns one is probably due to the post-9/11 militarization of local police in the U.S. The Wikipedia page for the TAV Gurkha shows where in the world they are currently deployed. The list contains 15 countries such as Iraq, Nigeria, Libya, and Oman, as well as the county police departments of Roanoke and Arlington, Virginia, and the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department of Wisconsin. These vehicles sounded like a great idea for particularly xenophobic communities, and the government would happily supply them with all kinds of heavy duty war machines. This has recently been halted as wasteful and unnecessary but if you have a hankering for one the surplus auctions have 'em.