Tell you what, you do get some people telling you about
how they feel a bit nervous in Johannesburg.
I don't, no! I don't.
It's a weird feeling because
I'm both worried about bumping into things because it's big,
and not worried about bumping into things because, well, frankly, who cares?
Like the original Hummer, the Marauder is a military-spec vehicle
that ordinary civilians can buy.
All you have to do is pass a background check
to prove you're not a villain living in a hollowed-out volcano...
and come up with a cheque for £300,000.
That is Rolls Royce Phantom money,
for a machine that's not exactly the last word in luxury.
Take the back seats, for instance. There are eight of them, which is good,
but I don't think you'll be renting this out as a wedding car any day soon.
And, as for the dashboard,
they clearly decided not to go for the walnut and leather option on here,
partly because they need to leave room for the switches,
partly because the wood might clash with the wood on the machine guns. Yeah.
However, the Marauder does compensate in other areas.
Take this annoying slow traffic that I'm stuck in now.
Normally this is where you need some expensive sat-nav system
to give you alternative routes.
The Marauder doesn't need sat-nav.
There you go. There you go.
Oh, yeah!
It really does control its immense weight very well.
Yes!
It really is like off-roading quite a large building.
Right, now...
That gap's big enough.
It is now.
Oh, Lord!
This is a good town car.
In fact, the Marauder has several benefits as a city runabout.
Imagine, for example, that you nip off to get a coffee and this happens.
Oh! That's not nice, no.
Now, normally the tow-away people leave you powerless and penniless,
but not this time.
The Marauder has got 290 brake horsepower
and a top speed of just 70 miles an hour, which admittedly isn't brilliant.
However, the torque figure is astonishing, 1,100 Newton metres of it,
which is a lot.
And that makes it pretty good in a tow-away tug-of-war.
We're going this way.
Yes, there you go.
Another everyday irritation, popping into the supermarket
and coming out to find yourself blocked in.
Again, no problem for the Marauder, thanks to its vertical climbing system.
Low range, four-wheel drive, div lock...
drive, handbrake off.
It's really kind of the ideal shopping car.
But let's not get carried away because, like everything,
the Marauder has its weak points.
Visiting a drive-through, for example.
Now, normally at about this point you'd roll down the windows...
and get ready to say: "Cheeseburger and chips, please."
But the problem is the Marauder's windows are, you know, for tough situations.
They're 90 millimetres thick.
They can shrug off an RPG and, as a result, you can't open them.
This is where it gets a bit awkward.
Good morning, can I take your order please?
Hello.
If you're there, I'd like a cheeseburger and some chips, please.
This isn't a riot situation. Don't be alarmed.
But the real problem comes when you drive around to collect your order.
Right.
Don't be alarmed. I'm not shooting.
So, a mark against the Marauder there.
And if you happen to visit a safari park...
you might find that the windscreen wipers aren't that tough.
But is this the only weak spot?
Let's see.
Now, this is where we're going to do a little test
you won't find in the NCAP ratings
and we start not with this, but with that.
Our old friend, the Hummer...
whose underside was packed with seven pounds of plastic explosive.
Oh, dear.
Really not much point trying to see if it will start
because some pretty important bits are missing.
So, the H3 is, like Hummer itself, very dead.
But the important question is, what happens to the Marauder
when you put the same amount of explosives underneath it?
Right, well, clearly, what's happened here is there was a fight
between the Marauder and the earth,
and the earth lost and the explosives have just dug a big hole.
Okay, fingers crossed.
That was definitely an inconvenience, but really nothing more.
Oh, yeah.