If you happen to be a motor enthusiast with a soft-spot for ‘extreme off road recreation’, we have great news for you. The world’s first luxury tank – the Ripsaw EV2 Extreme Luxury Tank – is now available for purchase!

According maker Howe and Howe Tech, the platform ‘Ripsaw’ platform was originally designed and built as a high speed super tank for military use. It quickly proved to be the “fastest dual tracked vehicle ever developed” and ended up on the cover of Popular Science magazine. In 2013, Howe and Howe decided to introduce the cutting edge technology to the high end, luxury market. They spent “thousands of man hours” working on the project, and finally unveiled the ‘Ripsaw EV2’, a “handcrafted, limited run, high end luxury super tank, developed for the public.”

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Russia’s newest taxi is unlike any other you’ve ever seen – it’s actually an armored reconnaissance vehicle that’s been modified to roam the streets of St. Petersburg just like any other cab. Although it has been painted red, its military design and deactivated turret gun machine can hardly be camouflaged and the vehicle never fails to grab attention every time it passes by.

The BRDM-2 Combat Command and Reconnaissance Vehicle was manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1963 and 1989. Well known for its ability to negotiate any kind of terrain, the BRDM was armed with a 14.5 mm Vladimirov heavy machine gun and a 7.62 mm Kalashnikov’s tank machine gun.

The BRDM’s current owner has long since wanted to use it as a taxi, but city authorities refused to grant a permit at first. After a long licensing campaign, the authorities finally gave in, with certain conditions. They asked that the vehicle’s camouflage pattern be changed to something more civilian. That’s why the owner chose red, in order to differentiate it from the standard yellow taxi color. The BRDM taxi is also prohibited from entering certain streets in the historical center of St. Petersburg, owing to its large size and weight.

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Indian taxi driver Harpreet Dev is well-known in his hometown of Bhatinda, Punjab, for his amazing reverse driving skills. The 30-year-old has been driving his cab in reverse for the past 11 years. Harpreet is so used to it now that he says he doesn’t trust himself to drive forwards anymore! He even has a special government license that allows him to drive backwards in any state in the northern part of India.

Harpreet’s passion for reverse driving started in 2003, when his faithful Fiat Padmini  got stuck in reverse gear late one night. “I was outside the city, I had no money, so I thought of driving the car backwards until Bhatinda,” he said. “Then I drove backwards and later on I gained confidence.”

That’s when he realised that he was really on to something, so the next morning he painted the words ‘Back Gear Champion’ on the side of the car and redesigned its gearbox to have four reverse gears and only one forward.

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While most modified motorbikes are adorned with tattoo motifs using an airbrush, The Recidivist is unique because its wheels, tank, seat and rear fender are completely covered in tattooed skin. This was achieved by engineering the bike with light colored leather similar to the color of human skin. Polish tattoo artists Tomasz Lech and Krzysztof Krolak then spent a whopping 250 hours inking the bike, using the tools of world-famous supplier Cheyenne Professional Tattoo Equipment. The project was commissioned by Game Over Cycles.

“This is by far the most complicated bike we’ve constructed so far,” the Polish company posted on their Facebook page. “To tattoo the bike is one thing, but to include the construction elements that draw from the look of tattoo machines and make them fully operational units was some challenge.” They also added that the theme of the Cheyenne Bike relates to the traditional relationship between motorbikes and tattoos.

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Rocket-powered buses are undoubtedly among the most fun ways to get to school. I mean, if that doesn’t get kids excited about school, I don’t know what will. So an Indiana man actually invented such a jet powered school bus that can travel as fast as 367mph!

The bus, dubbed ‘School Time’ is the brainchild of petrol-head and engineer Paul Stender and his build team Indy Boys. Paul actually custom built the entire bus himself, because “there’s no way the original bus could have withstood the speeds” he takes it to. “A lot of it is hand-crafted and the types of metals used would be more at home on an aircraft,” he explained.

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While most Batman fans are content with collecting Batmobile action figures, 29-year-old Zac Mihajlovic from Camden, New South Wales, decided to build a real one for himself. He spent the past two years modelling a street legal version of the iconic batman car from the 1989 film starring Michael Keaton.

Zac is now the proud owner of Australia’s only working and registered replica of the 1989 Batmobile that can be legally driven on public roads. And although he has been offered a lot of money for it (a six figure sum, he says), the Batman fan plans to keep it and use it to make sick children happy. “It’s my absolute pride and joy,” he remarked. “I feel like if I do nothing else for the rest of my life, I’ll die happy.”

Zac was only five years old when he first watched Batman and his obsession began. “At the time, being a five-year-old kid, it scared me but I never forgot it. I just love Batman because he’s one of the only superheroes that don’t have powers so being able to connect to him on a human level is great.”

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Deporah Hornberger and Stephane Langelier, from Kendallville, Indiana, have an unusual hobby – collecting vintage hearses. The gothic couple have three well-maintained funeral coaches stowed away in their spacious garage – all are modified Cadillacs, two from 1949 and one from 1964.

Stephane, a talented artist and musician who runs a pipe organ service, explained that he has always loved hearses. He met Deporah, a local realtor, in a gothic-style bar in Washington D.C. 10 years ago, and they have been inseparable ever since. Among their many shared interests is a common love for hearses.

The couple are members of the ‘Just Hearse ‘N Around’ car club in Michigan, and participate in car shows around the country. Whenever they show off their cars in these parades, they make sure to dress up – Stephane wears a top hat, black jacket and black leather pants, and Deporah shows up in a red satin and black lace gown.

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Believe it or not, the most happening party club in St. Petersburg is a bus! Well, not just any bus. The Barbus Maxi is a one-of-a-kind vehicle that’s been completely transformed to resemble a nightclub. It is Russia’s largest and most expensive party-bus, complete with a dance floor, lounge, fully stocked bar, and even a toilet.

In its previous life, Barbus was just an old Ikarus 280 public transportation vehicle. A few Russian entrepreneurs decided to give it a new lease of life – they completely took it apart, leaving only the frame intact. Then they proceeded to cover the exterior with a film of black-and-white images of pin-up models and urban landscapes of London and New York. The interiors were designed with a pop-art theme.

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Unlike most other taxi services, the Japanese Turtle Taxi caters to people who aren’t really in a hurry and prefer a leisurely ride. Surprisingly, there are many who enjoy a service that is deliberately slow – the unique taxi has been steadily growing in popularity ever since it started in December 2013.

The taxi service was created by the Sanwa Kotsu Group – they’ve designated 10 of their 500 cabs in Yokohama as ‘turtle taxis’, and specifically trained cab drivers to accelerate and decelerate as gently as possible. They’ve also been told to manage the ‘centrifugal forces’, to avoid making sharp turns.

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You don’t really need to spend thousands of dollars on Swarovski crystals or hair extensions to give your car a neat makeover. An inexpensive Sharpie can do the job just as well, if you’re creative enough. Like this woman who used dozens of Sharpies and put in 100 hours of hard work to convert her husband’s 1995 Nissan Skyline GTR into a mind-blowing piece of art.

Collen Kelton, a US military officer stationed in Japan, had always hated the dull silver color of his R33 GTR. So he told his then-girlfriend Allison that she could doodle a few scratches on the bumper. But when he saw how beautiful her designs looked, he was compelled to ask her to keep going.

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StopXam is a vigilante group that is actively involved in fighting against the rude and entitled driving culture in Eastern Europe. Their goal is to stop bad driving with politeness, which forms the basis of the name StopXam (meaning ‘stop rudeness’). While the non-profit organisation originated in Moscow in 2010, several branches have emerged in neighboring countries such as Moldova.

With their unique approach towards eliminating illegal parking and dangerous driving, StopXam has managed to become an internet sensation. Their technique is simple: they first approach offending drivers and try explaining things politely. For instance, they might say: “Hello, your car is standing too close and does not allow this car to move. Please park somewhere else.”

Some drivers get the message quickly and correct themselves. But those who don’t get a giant sticker that covers up almost half their windshield. “We will give you a sticker on your front window, and it will be very uncomfortable for you to drive with it,” they warn. If the driver still doesn’t budge, they go ahead and paste the sticker, which reads: ‘I don’t care about other people, I park where I want’.

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We’ve seen people cover their cars with the weirdest stuff – right from dentures to swarovski crystals. But this one is a first – an Italian hairstylist chose to pay tribute to her profession by covering her car in human hair. There’s hair everywhere – on the exterior, the seats, the dashboard, and even the steering wheel.

The car in question belongs to 44-year-old Maria Lucia Mugno. She decided to cover it in hair in 2010, after a friend bet her that she couldn’t do it. So with the help of her assistant Valentino Stassano, she spent 150 hours sewing thickly braided strands of hair imported from India on her small Fiat 500. The effort won her the Guinness World Record title for the world’s hairiest car.

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This group of highly skilled Indonesian woodworkers caters exclusively to people who love collecting sports cars – both real and wooden. They carve impressive life-size replicas of popular sports car models, and their creations are routinely exported to buyers in the US, England, Germany, and other European countries. 

Their latest handiwork is a model of the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, made entirely out of teak – it doesn’t work of course, but it’s a stunning copy of the real thing. And let’s not forget – cheaper by several thousands of dollars.

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Li Guojun is a farmer by profession, but his passion for military toys has pushed him to build a couple of life-size, fully functional tanks. Although he doesn’t know much about military engineering and he doesn’t even have access to the internet, he managed to build his own tanks by observing models that he purchased at a local toy shop. The two vehicles are 6 meters long, capable of a top speed of 12 miles per hour, and can tackle almost any kind of terrain.

“To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult to do,” said the humble farmer. “I simply needed to make the same parts that the model had, but much larger.” Li did have a little help from a friend and fellow military tank enthusiast – they built the tanks together and they now spend their spare time driving the massive vehicles outside their village in Kangping County, in northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

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21-year-old Daria Radionova has been attracting a lot of attention on the streets of London with her swanky, crystal-encrusted car. The Russian student apparently wasn’t content with her Mercedes CLS 350; she wanted something more ‘unique and special’. So she spent £20,000 (a little over $30,000) to coat the luxury vehicle in a million Swarovski crystals.

The sparkly car is currently parked outside the Levin Hotel in Knightsbridge, in West London. The neighborhood is well-known for rich Arab kids speeding around in their garish supercars during the summer. Among the well known cars in the area are a gold Range Rover, and an assortment of Rolls Royces, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis. Daria had to do something different if she wanted her car to stand out, so she chose to cover every last inch of it with crystals, including the door handles.

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