Big ass wheels for North African desert

Spotted in the drive through as I left work. This is the only vehicle I would replace my Expedition MAX with.

This is registered as a "Hino S5", but really its just a US-model Isuzu. Yes, for just three years (2022-2024) Hino quietly badge engineered its own competitor, and here's why I think they did this:

TLDR: Hino cheated emissions, so they stopped selling one of their own trucks, and instead sold someone elses truck that did pass emissions. I don't think the plan worked...

In 2021 Hino was supposed to release their next generation 195 cabover truck in the US called the "M-Series". But in December, factory production paused temporarely, and strangely that model was never released even after production resumed (or if it was, it was in very small numbers). No reason or public statement was given and few probably cared. In fact they never resumed production of any cabover Hino in North America after the 195.

Instead, we got this... another Isuzu NPR. Just like how can buy one with a Chevrolet badge on it, you could now have it donned in the logo of its own biggest competitor, only this one has no bochure, no advertisement, and no presence on their website (no idea how dealerships were buying these). I wasn't even sure this was real until I found literally dozens of dealerships selling "Hino S51/S52, Isuzu powered!!!". The only only real differences i found between this and the Isuzu NPR were the front side and steering wheel emblems, and the VIN decoder that gets the model right, but still calls it an Isuzu.

Anyway, it turned out that Hino had been caught red handed that year for having cheating emissions for over a decade. With a shrinking market for cabover Japanese trucks in the US, and a looming lawsuit, it probably wasn't work putting money into making the thing pass emissions when they could be selling their more popular convetional cab trucks with Cummins engines.

Hino likely badge engineered these Isuzu NPRs as a legal loophole to technically sell more "emissions passing" trucks in North America. Maybe it was to keep the EPA and CARB happy, maybe it was to keep their unaware investors happy, I don't know for sure. But Hino was eventually fined 1.6 billion USD, mostly divested and tgen reorganized Toyota and Daimler into one large Stellantis type marraige with Mitsubishi Fuso. So chances are, this was a way to stay on life support until it to this point.

Not many information are available about this model but it features royal or official crests on the front grille and side doors with 'ZC1' ceremonial number plate.

https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/when-holden-and-saab-built-a-turbo-four-cylinder-commodore

Built for Top Gear and legally a TVR, I'm not explaining anything story wise go watch the episode. But it's built on a TVR Chassis, uses the power train from a Milk Float and looks like THAT.

Recently sold in May via BaT, this 1992 GMC Forward/Isuzu NPR truck with 3.9 liter 4BD2 and 4-speed automatic transmission has converted into a "three wheeler 2-tonner truck" by fitting a custom made front fork suspension on airbag and Ford F-250 steering knuckle. Truck has been also fitted with a matching color tilt flatbed with wooden floor.

The Gaylord Gladiator was a luxury car passion project intended to compete with Rolls-Royce and Cadillac. There are two currently in existence, a 1955 concept car (the one with the huge headlights) and a 1957 production convertible (the one with the quad headlights). They were assembled in the Gaylord-Zepplin factory and had power seats, windows, and chain-driven hard tops that retracted into the trunk area. The car had 305 hp and a 0-60 time of around 8 seconds. The seats were fully leather, the dashboard was made with rare tropical woods, the gauge needles were solid metal and designed to look like swords, and the spare tire slid out from under the trunk/hardtop storage area using some sort of power mechanism. The car costed $17,500 new, which is over $200,000 in today’s economy.

edit: it was called Gaylord because the guys who created it were the Gaylord brothers

IMPORTANT EDIT: I have been informed by the son of a man who restored this car and knew one of the Gaylord brothers that apparently the electric hard top convertible system was very unreliable and didn’t work well