Like a Trojan horse into town

While British petrol head Richard Hammond may have found the perfect vehicle to beat South African metro police departments with, ordinary South Africans would have to get permission from the government to buy a locally built Marauder armoured vehicle.

For the first episode of the popular Top Gear's 17th season, Hammond was hell-bent on destroying the 15-ton troop carrier, built by armoured vehicle manufacturer Paramount Group in South Africa.

Driving it through derelict buildings in Newtown, Johannesburg, putting it to tests against lions at a reserve, and even detonating plastic explosives underneath what is billed as the "world's toughest car", Hammond failed miserably against the 6m by 3m vehicle.

In the explosion, which left a huge hole in the ground, only the truck's left rear tyre was damaged, and the vehicle drove out of the hole.

Standing among the debris, Hammond said: "Right, clearly what has happened here is [that] there was a fight between a Marauder and earth, and earth lost."

His co-host, Jeremy Clarkson, back in the Top Gear studio, wasn't convinced. He told Hammond that "a car that has had its tyre blown off is as useless as a car blown to smithereens".

Hammond won his battle against the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, however, when it tried to tow the vehicle away for being parked illegally.

The department's officers were baffled when he got back in the truck, coffee in hand, started it, and towed the police truck .

The Marauder has a drawback, however.

When trying to buy a take-away at a McDonald's drive-through, there was not enough space in the gun-hole in the window to get food through, and the monster truck ran over all the fast food franchise's light pillars when driving away.

David McDonald Joyce, business development director at Paramount Group, said civilians would have to be cleared by the government before they could buy the truck - for a cool R3-million.

Its tyres, called "run flat" inserts, can run even when perforated by a 12.7mm bullet.

McDonald Joyce said the Marauder was built to protect soldiers at war, and had been sold to countries in Africa and eastern Europe as it was "one of the most protected vehicles in the world".