First Military Hummer - We call on Ian Broekman to answer these questions and more. He is MSA's chief innovation officer and lead designer, and co-founder with CEO Adam Mitchell and President Chris Van Scyoc. Oh, and he's only 23 (Mitchell and Van Scyoc are 24).
We focus on vehicles that were developed for military use. Many of these vehicles have nostalgia and interest in the enthusiast market, but were never intended for civilian use. For example, although the [Hummer H1] was later developed as a civilian vehicle, we thought it was a quick job.
First Military Hummer
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Lots of shortcuts were taken and never really cared in terms of powertrain, road handling or interior comfort, and never had a chance to start from a good place and develop. Our focus is on redesigning and redesigning the entire platform, not just improving small elements.
What Are You Bringing To The Table That’s Not Already Out There In The Custom Vehicle And Restomod Industry?
Performance upgrades are obviously an important part [Ed. Note: Engine is an upgraded LBZ 6.6-liter turbocharged Duramax V8 diesel producing 500 hp and 1,000 lb-ft. of torque, nearly twice the power of the Hummer H1 Alpha].
But what's been fun for us and what's been a differentiator is the interiors, because we spend a lot of time reshaping and repackaging the interior of the truck. It does not share original components with the H1.
The HMMWV is equipped with independent double A-arm front and rear suspension, coil springs and double-acting hydraulic shocks for high off-road mobility. This system provides 16 inches of ground clearance under normal load conditions. It has a 72-inch track.
The vehicle offers 40% slip, 60% climb, and a 60-inch water pickup capacity, making it a great all-terrain vehicle. In August 2017, AM General was awarded a $2.2 billion fixed-price Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract to deliver 11,560 new Humvees by 2022. AM General was awarded an $800 million, five-year contract for up to 2,800 ambulances M997A3 HMMWV.
When People Look Over The Specs On Your Website Is There Anything That Sticks Out To You That You People Might Miss?
September 2018. Client works directly with me and a couple of our team members to build their truck to our option sheet and we send 20, 30, 40 emails discussing exactly what finish and materials they want along with options.
and then once. We have a very good idea of your truck specifications, then production will start. Then we'll make some changes based on how the truck evolves in production. However, in 2020, GM announced the rebirth of the Hummer brand.
With the GMC Hummer EV, GM wants to bring the Hummer back to life as an electric pickup truck and SUV. The company invested $2.2 billion in its Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant to produce the new vehicle.
While GM has touted the Hummer EV's off-road features like a crab ride, adaptive air suspension, and steel underbody armor, the EV is a far cry from the Humvee that spawned the H1 and still fills the ranks of military motor vehicles.
How Does The Process Work? Can You Walk Us Through Getting One Of Your Custom Hummers?
In 1983, AM General received an initial production contract worth $1.2 billion to produce 2,334 Humvees, the first increment of a total order of 55,000 vehicles. Production began in 1984, with the first deliveries in 1985. By 1991, 72,000 HMMWVs had been produced, including international sales.
In April 2011, the US Army issued a second Request for Information (RFI) for a competitive HMMWV recapitalization program. The program is designed to upgrade around 60,000 older model HMMWVs to a high level of protection.
The main contenders, BAE Systems, Oshkosh and AM General, developed HMMWV summary program kits. The first RFI published in January 2010 was rejected by the US Congress. The HMMWV is air transportable, droppable and helicopter-loadable. The C-13 Hercules aircraft can carry three HMMWVs and the C-5A Galaxy 15. Additionally, the vehicle can be launched using a low-altitude parachute ejection system.
The FK 5 offers IED blast protection and small arms protection, while the Gunner's Protection Kit with Lens allows the gunner to view the battlefield with ultra-safe viewing through clear armored glass. Later in 2009, AM General released an Advanced Armor Fragmentation Kit for seven (FRAG 7) M1151 Enhanced Armor Humvees.
Do A Lot Of Them Have Previous Experience With Hummer?
In 2000, a production contract was signed with AM General for the production of 2,962 trucks of the M998A2 series. The contract included six one-year increments. Later, the contract period was extended until 2009. AM General delivered more than 85,000 trucks under this contract.
In August 2010, the company signed a $619 million contract with the US Army to supply 2,526 HMMWVs to the Afghan Police and National Guard. The US Army Tank and Ordnance Command (TACOM) awarded two contracts in May 2010 for 153 HMMWVs.
In 1999, AM General reached an agreement with General Motors. GM bought the marketing rights to the Hummer name and marketed it as the Hummer H1 in anticipation of a newer version. Meanwhile, AM General continued to produce its true military Hummers to sell to GM.
Right now we're only working on the Hummer H1, and that's because when we offer a vehicle that we're working on, we want to make sure we have at least a year or two of development.
Source: i0.wp.com
What Are Some Of The Customization Requests That Have Caught You Off Guard Either In The Interior Or In Terms Of Performance?
So customers come to us now and say, "I want the launch edition," which is our first time, which is 12 restores on the H1 platform, and then we either get a donor truck or they bring us a truck to use.
restoration. Once the truck is in, we have to do a full analysis and break it down to the frame rails and body. And then the frame and body rails are the only parts that get reused.
What tends to happen from what we've seen is that most customers have driven the H1 before. They thought [MSA's custom version] was what the truck would be like, but then they bought the original H1 and price wise it wasn't what they thought it would be.
There is plastic everywhere, the car is noisy, slow, brakes badly and they realize that they cannot live with this every day, even if they wanted to. Where we come from, most of these guys get a chance to jump in one of these, have the truck start on the first crank, and have a working air conditioner and a driving experience that matches what it really is.
How Did You Decide To Work With The H? Didn’t You First Start With Actual Military Humvees?
they are waiting. Hummer achieved great popularity in the civilian market. It was promoted with an enthusiastic campaign by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Beyond that, the Hummer was a capable off-road vehicle in its own right. Regardless of whether the buyer chose a gasoline or diesel engine, the Hummer had enough power and torque to hit the road.
Of course, this came at the cost of fuel economy (not that it mattered all that much in the late '90s). The Hummer had 16 inches of ground clearance, 72/37.5 degree approach/departure angles, could slide in 30 inches of water and climb a 22-inch step.
Most Hummers also had a central tire inflation system to inflate or deflate tires as needed from the cab with the push of a button. "Them" in this case refers to the custom Hummer H1s that Mil-Spec Automotive has taken over the world.
We've already written about a couple of builds worthy of a centerpiece from the Detroit-based shop, but as the relatively small company has grown and established itself as a worthy competitor in the crowded custom vehicle space, we wanted to reach out and ask some tough questions.
Who Are Your Customers? Have You Found Any Similarities?
. You can imagine that you could attract some pretty interesting potential customers with a vehicle like this. We've had a lot of interesting area codes and people asking us for materials that aren't exactly ethically correct.
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When you're at this level of restoration and working closely with a client, it's hard to say no, but we always think ethics first and there are some materials we could do. do not do it with a clear conscience.
The main thing would be the choice of interior materials, and then also some requested personal protective equipment, which we have no interest in accommodating, because it would hurt our brand. Yeah, we felt like the H1 was the ugly duckling in the off-road space.
Had or has a bad reputation. H1 didn't really get a bad rap. The reason for this, in my opinion, was more the mismanagement of the Hummer brand. So the H1 seemed like a great place to start because they had a very, very dedicated fan base, and [the vehicle] was exceptionally capable and had a reputation as one of the most powerful off-road vehicles ever made.
You Founded Msa In But You’re Still In Your Early S What Was It Like Starting Relatively Young Compared To The Rest Of The Industry?
A four-door hardtop wagon, a four-door hardtop hatchback, a four-door hardtop wagon, a four-door hardtop SUV, and a two-door extended hardtop wagon package are available. . The most expensive option is the four-door hardtop SUV, which costs $28,999 on top of the retail price.
Out of the box, the Mil-Spec M1 starts around $200,000 before options; however, the launch edition of the M1 shown here is a bit more expensive. The vehicle is 15 feet long, 6 feet tall, and 7 feet wide.
The chassis is a steel frame with boxed frame rails and five cross beams made of high-quality alloy steel. The body is made of aluminium, which reduces its weight and ensures high resistance to corrosion. While the H1 retained recovery points on the hood and/or bumpers to allow the Humvee to recover and lift into the air, the H2's recovery points were purely decorative and not connected to the vehicle's chassis.
In addition, the H1 wheels had a CITS armored protective cover. Although the H2 did not have CITS, its chrome wheels were designed to mimic the CITS fairing. While still a capable off-road vehicle, the H2 had moved away from its military origins and was being marketed more as a status-symbol lifestyle off-road vehicle.
Do Any Of You Have Personal Connections To Hummer? Or Was There Something Beyond The Vehicle’s Capabilities That Drew You To It?
We started looking at military surplus auctions because it was the cheapest way to get one. And the three of us, being the youngest, initially didn't have the funds to dive into the whole vehicle program.
So we started by restoring and upgrading the original military surplus Humvee. That in itself evolved very quickly into a vehicle program within the first three or four months simply because we understood the pitfalls of the truck after spending a lot of time with them.
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Then we realized that to have a real chance of making a vehicle series, we had to use something with a 17-digit VIN. Humvees don't have VIN numbers, they just have serial numbers. So we had to switch to civilian trucks with development for about a year and a half.
We learned that it comes with the territory. But being the youngest guys, all three of us, we're focused on efficiency and no longer tarnishing [Hummer's] reputation. We don't want to do anything that isn't delicious.
How Did You Meet Chris And Adam? And Why Did You Start Msa?
That's why we always try to encourage clients to be imaginative, but to be imaginative within reason. The customers we have supplied trucks to are often blue collar business owners. The good thing is that they use their trucks, plus a delivery to a car collector, more as a token, either for hunting or taking them to vacation homes with access to the countryside.
They're all tough, outdoor-oriented guys who obviously bought this stuff to wear, so we're pretty happy. Initially I was apprehensive about a restoration of this caliber and a project like this, I thought most of these trucks were meant to be garage queens, but actually the opposite was true.
The cabin also gets a complete makeover. Hand-stitched waterproof fabric covers the front and rear seats and parts of the center console. A completely custom dash and surround sound system complement the bespoke materials. Each vehicle is built by hand at Mil-Spec's Wichita, Kansas shop and is available in multiple configurations.
While at school he met Chris, who at the time was a huge vintage car and boat enthusiast. They hit it off and on a trip to Silver Lake Sand Dunes he asked me out and the three of us connected and started talking about the industry and where it was headed.
We're big fans of what Jonathan Ward is doing at Icon and the Singer guys, [and we think] there are plenty of other vehicles, especially in a military context, that deserve the same attention to detail and treatment.
That's how the exploratory phase started, and then it turned into a crazy business model. It didn't make much sense, but here we are three years later. Running number 003, and the first example offered to the public, the M1 Launch Edition includes a $13,999 four-door hardtop pickup with a $5,499 Fat Body and Tire package and $699 aluminum snorkel.
Full price for the M1 Launch Edition is $239,000. The M998 HMMWV has a gross weight ratio (GVWR) of 7,700 pounds and a curb weight of 5,200 pounds. With its maximum payload of 2,500 pounds, the vehicle can reach a top speed of 65 miles per hour.
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Source: cdn.vox-cdn.com
It has 1+1 or 2+2 seating options depending on the configuration. It uses a 12V/24V electrical system and has a 95L fuel tank. The HMMWV Extended Capacity Vehicle (ECV) was developed to carry a large payload with the same levels of performance.
The most common vehicle weighs 2.5 tons and has a payload capacity of 5,100 pounds. It is powered by a 6.5-litre turbocharged V8 diesel engine. Major vehicles of this model include M1113, M1114, M1116, M1151 with A/C, M1151A, M1151A1 with B1, M1152 with A/C, M1152A1, M1152A1 with B2, M1165 with A/C, M1116B, M1116B, M1116B.
A lot of people ask us this question and we like to think of our age as an advantage because we're not married, we don't have children, so we can throw ourselves completely into our passion.
We could work 70-80 hours a week and there were no consequences. It was a lot of trial and error, a lot of error and a lot of development. We were basically in development for two, two and a half years before we released the product.
We had to find ways to generate other sources of income and keep the business afloat, but that's not really taught in college. So that was a crash course for the three of us in business.
I always had personal experience with Land Rover as a kid because my dad is from Holland so he used to go [there] and his friend was in a Land Rover club and had a couple of advocates, so that's where my love for 4X4 started.
Adam was always a huge Hummer enthusiast, he always loved the H1 but couldn't afford one. So I had an H2 in high school, I think I used to tease him from time to time. Adam and I started off-roading and realized the H2 wasn't capable of anything and Adam said, "We've got to figure out how to go with the H1," so that's when we started looking at it.
This was right around the time that the GovPlanet auction was becoming increasingly popular, and one of these military surplus Humvees could be had for between $5,000 and $8,000 at the time. Adam and I went to high school together and were always interested in cars.
There wasn't a big car scene, so we just went up to each other and hung out, talking about our cars and talking about the industry. We dated after he went to UW Madison and I went to Lawrence Tech in Detroit for transportation design.
Construction began as a frame restoration. Mil-Spec then increased the track width by eight inches, finished the body with a unique "After-Burner Grey" paint job, and shoved a 6.6-liter turbocharged diesel V8 under the hood. The new engine produces 500 horsepower (372 kilowatts) and 1,000 pound-feet (1,355 newton meters) of torque.
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