Kira Van at Sema

mk216v

Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
I was fortunate enough to see this and get a personal tour by Bran Ferren, the owner/designer. Not only is the truck a sight to see, he is a fascinating person.

He said that in addition to building this for his daughter, he built it to show potential clients his firms capabilities. You see, he builds vehicles for the military and other organizations that require secrecy. They don't want him taking photos of what he built or showing the vehicles to other companies/organizations. This way he can show Kiravan, to demonstrate the capabilities of what his company, Applied Minds can dream, design, and build.

Say what you want, but this man has a fascinating background and is an inventor and patent holder as well as an Oscar winner, artist, creative genius, former head of R&D at Disney Imagineering, and just a nice guy who shared a lot of info about the build. I never met him prior, but just struck up a conversation. To me, meeting him was one of the highlights of the Sema show this year.

Steve

Wow Steve, what an honor! The world needs more down to earth 1%'ers like him.

Kiravan is a holy smokes over the top rig. Makes sense that it's a write-off in order to show what Applied Minds can do for others. But, it brings an entirely new meaning to the K.I.S.S. principle. ;)
 

rlynch356

Defyota
It's pretty cool - Lots of innovative features and i totally understand why he built it not just as a personal project but a showcase of what his company can do, i have a friend in a similar field which has built a Demonstrator for the industry based on what was at the time the world most expensive porsche (in 1995). It gets the clients attention for sure.
 

mk216v

Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
It's pretty cool - Lots of innovative features and i totally understand why he built it not just as a personal project but a showcase of what his company can do, i have a friend in a similar field which has built a Demonstrator for the industry based on what was at the time the world most expensive porsche (in 1995). It gets the clients attention for sure.

Link to the Stuttgart machine?
 

OCD Overland

Explorer
Well, at least it didn't burn down, fall over, and then sink into the swamp.

It's hard to appreciate it - even as an engineering exercise - when after four years of work, it can't make it two miles without breaking.

On the up side, the kid did seem, um, enthusiastic? :coffee:
 

mk216v

Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
Hopefully in the last 5 years Bran's taken Kira on some other trips in MaxiMog....vs just waiting for KiraVan to be finished.
 

LukeH

Adventurer
...a group of know-it-alls decides to crawl out from underneath their FJ60 and chime in on how much smarter they are ...

Surely you mean Defender, there's rarely any need to crawl under a Toyota...
Sorry I just couldn't resist, really it's "muscle memory"

That truck really really needs to be put through its paces. We never actually see it working hard, how is it a showcase if there are no action photos for our truck porn pleasure :)
 

adam88

Explorer
I watched the video and have followed this off and on for years. Honestly, I think it's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen money wasted on (and that says a lot, considering some of the stuff I've seen at SEMA). The vehicle weighs 51,000 pounds and is totally unusable in pretty much any way. It can't even drive on pavement, never mind go off road anywhere. I can't fathom the logic behind this build, except I wonder if there was a lack of street smarts behind this. I get the feeling the guy never drove a 50,000 pound semi truck before and figured how bad could it be. The money spent on this could probably buy 10 top of the line Unicats or 20 earthroamers. It's just absurd. Just my two cents. I am all for "to each their own" mentality, but if I took $10 million dollars and threw it in a fire people wouldn't be too happy.
 

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