Some Russians took an old Nissan and built Darth Vader an insect-like off-roader

By Peter Braun Published March 3, 2014

Vladimir Putin may be trying reboot the Crimean War – the 19th century’s least fun war – but average Russians are still doing what they do best: being completely insane … but in a good way. That’s right; a group of average Joe-iviches designed and built Darth Vader’s Baja Bug.

The design started on 3D modeling software, but unlike so many home projects it didn’t fizzle out. Instead, according to English Russia, the creator and his friends stripped out a Nissan Maxima for parts and brought this mental truck dune buggy thing to life.

If you take a moment to look, you can see the Maxima cabin being devoured by the H.R. Geiger-like structure of steel tubing. But this is not your redneck cousin’s El Camino on an old truck frame. For a home-job, the blending here is pretty seamless.

I do hope that they upgraded the powerplant from the 200-or-so-horsepower V6 that came standard in the Maxima, because this beast looks a bit heavier than the 3,000 pound sedan. In fact, the suspension of this beast appears to be hanging on for dear life.

Still I can only hope that insane dash-cam videos are forthcoming, as this beast hits countryside and roads of Russia. Maybe we can even arrange a crazy Eastern European truck competition between this thing and the astounding Romanian Ghe-O Rescue. That sounds like much more fun than invading the Ukraine.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Peter is a freelance contributor to Digital Trends and almost a lawyer. He has loved thinking, writing and talking about cars…

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