Maruti Suzuki Gypsy to Hummer HX Conversion

The Hummer is an off road vehicle that was spawned from a military vehicle, the HUMVEE, with the name being an acronym for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. While the Hummer H2 and H3 were large vehicles that needed football fields for garages and a gas station in your backyard, General Motors aimed to make the Hummer more affordable and compact. In other words, the American automaker tried to put together a Hummer for the younger generation of buyers. The Hummer HX was born as a concept in 2008, and has remained one ever since.

While the Hummer HX may never hit roads or for that matter off road trails, its replica roams Indian streets. The Hummer HX inspired a bunch of off road vehicle enthusiasts to strip down a Maruti Suzuki Gypsy and build a replica as an ode to the HX. Also known as the mountain goat in off roading circles, the Gypsy is very maneuverable in urban traffic. To make it look like the Hummer HX, plenty of square and rectangular bits were added. The end result is a vehicle that looks quite butch while being compact enough for everyday use.

At the front, the bumper was redesigned, and a bull bar and skid plates were added for a macho look. The real deal is with the headlamps, grille, bonnet and the windscreen. The headlamps go square while the grille is extended to give the design a sense of width.  The bonnet gets a once over and sits taller on the donor Maruti Gypsy’s body, while the windscreen gets chopped to imitate the Hummer HX. The single cab cabin design gets extended to again mimic the cabin of the Hummer while the rear gets a soft top and a couple of seats.

Body cladding assumes a more squarer design while mud terrain tyres do their bit to add to the overall muscular design. The rear loading bed is also extended to give the Gypsy based Hummer replica a sense of length. The Gypsy’s 1.3 liter petrol engine is retained and a free flow exhaust system is added. On the whole,the replica is a good effort. While off road cred of the replica is quite questionable given the many low hanging bits, on road performance should be decent enough.

Images: TheAutomotiveIndia