Video: witness the excellence of the two-man Sherp ATV

You’ll have to forgive our Russian translation, but TG thinks that the two-man Sherp is probably worth your attention. It’s a new Saint-Petersburg based ATV variant based on the concept from a man called Aleksei Garagashian, and despite the Tonka-toy looks, is remarkably simple.

Huge, self-inflating and patented tyres (1600x600x25) that actually sit proud of the front and rear bodywork mean that the Sherp can mount obstacles of 70cm plus, or possibly do a backflip in the attempt. Breakover angles, as you might have gleaned from the pictures, are pretty radical, and a simple skid-steer system means that it can turn in it’s own length.

Under the floor a proprietary Kubota four-pot 1.5-litre turbodiesel provides the motivation - all 44bhp of it - and safe to say it’s not particularly quick, managing just 45km/h on land in the higher ratios of the 5-speed ‘box. Oh, and 6km/h on water, because it also swims. Obviously. It only weight 1,300kg, and the bodywork is essentially a steel tub with some transmission bolted to it. Safe to say, maintenance should be fairly easy.

Think of it as a tiny tank, or an extreme off-road buggy. It’s designed to work in extreme environments, getting you to places no other vehicle can manage, and comes in either standard (a pickup ‘with tent', $65k), or ‘Kung’ (a hard top with a choice of colours and a ‘soft, transformable interior, $70k).

More than that, it looks like quite a lot of fun...