If you call yourself a gearhead, it’s likely you spent much of your childhood smashing toy trucks together in the dirt. As kids, we loved the larger-than-life capabilities of big 4x4s, and even though we’re a bit older now, that same juvenile passion exists within us all. Thankfully, there’s a new outlet for your truckish enthusiasm, and it hails from the magical lands of St. Petersburg, Russia.
It’s called the Sherp ATV, and it comes from a “genius technologist” named Aleksey Garagashyan. Looking like a life-sized version of the toys we played with as kids, the Sherp’s proportions are incredibly mismatched, as the vehicle’s 1,600-millimeter self-inflating tires measure in at nearly 70 percent of the ATV’s total height. It has quite the commanding presence though, and clearly, it’s designed this way for a reason.
The Sherp can basically go anywhere it pleases, whether it be snow, ice, mud, sand, or as the video above shows, the open water. When it’s not swimming through a frigid lake, the ATV can scale objects up to 27.5 inches tall and even use a skid steer system to turn within its own wheelbase. It even manages to look kind of adorable while doing it.
The Russian vehicle starts at a hefty $65,000, which will get you a 1.5-liter, 44-horsepower four-banger diesel and a five-speed manual transmission. It’s certainly not fast — the Sherp manages 28 mph on land and 3.7 mph in water — but it can reach those speeds in just about any conditions mother nature can throw at it. The base price also includes a soft top tent, halogen headlights, a 15.3-gallon fuel tank, and a few analog devices on the dash. Interested parties can tack on another $5,000 for the “Kung” version, which has a hard top and a slightly cozier cabin.
One-way ticket to Russia, anyone?
