You would have never thought that the peaceful people of Canada would never come up with a challenger to the throne for the world's most luxurious armoured SUV vehicle. The Canadian company Conquest has come up with the Knight XV. This originally started life as an all American Ford F550 pick-up truck and Conquest strips it down and builds it up into the fully armoured XV which is intended for extremely wealthy people like, oh the usual, drug lord, rich middle eastern arabs, russian tycoons of the dubious kind, or any paranoid people with deep pockets.

The XV has bodywork and glass claimed to be capable to stop even a 7.62mm Druganov Armour Piercing round when specified to full ballistic protection option. If you specify full armour option it can supposedly withstand an assault against it and protect its occupants against bomb blasts (mines, hand grenades and the occasional RPG shot at it). If you spec it with the on-board fire extinguisher and oxygen breathing systems you could survive even longer. With the time limited to the food you have on board and the size of your bladder and intestines (while bigger than a Hummer H2, it still isn't as big as an RV where you can fit a decent sized potty/throne to do your business on).

You can have night-vision cameras, dark-tinted armoured glass, run-flat tyres that keep the car mobile even after it's been shot up and an anti-theft device (in case someone tries to nick it). As for the luxury aspect of this 'uber Hummer', six leather-upholstered seats, Wilton carpets, laptops wired in to each of the four rear seats, twin rear screens for TV screens, a cigar humidor, security safe, drinks bar and electrically-operated window curtains. At this rate, if you specify a disco ball, the manufacturers would throw one in for free.

The Knight XV is powered by a 400bhp 6.8liter V10 engine and has a fully armoured curb weight of 5,454kg. It is as extreme (or even more) than the Dartz Prombon mentioned earlier and has the same level of handcrafted workmanship put into it. Conquest claims that it spends 1,500hours hand building each vehicle to standards that zillionaires are accustomed to.

Prices start at US$489,000 and goes up to almost US$700,000 depending on what options are put into it. But only in left hand drive format as its based on an American SUV. It is also larger than a Hummer H2, hence if you see one on the streets of Singapore (which I doubt), it may destroy cars to its left and right on any of the small roads it treads on. You may catch one or two in Dubai if you go shopping there.

As I stated in the article mentioned above about the Dartz, the civilian Hummer may be dead, but the concept lives on.