Shadow Hawk plans on building six Super Terrain Vehicles!

Shadow Hawk raises the bar for high-performance cars.

What do you get when you cross a Corvette with the original military Hummer? A heck of a hybrid. But it still wouldn’t have the outrageous performance and capabilities of the Super Terrain Vehicles (STV) being designed and built by Shadow Hawk, Broomfield, Colo. The company has plans for six versions of its STV: the Desert Hawk, an off-roader; two for the military, the Armor Hawk and Battle Hawk; an RV version, the Terra Hawk; a high-speed coupe, the Street Hawk; and a slightly less-expensive, less-capable “entry-level” version, the Steel Hawk. The vehicles will hit the market late this year, with the company planning on building a dozen over the first 12 months. After that, they intend to manufacture 15 to 18 per year, with the least expensive, the Steel Hawk, going for $750,000, and the rest starting at $1 million. It should take about 18 months to build each one, and buyers will be able to customize nearly every aspect of the car.

Engine and chassis At the heart of all the Hawks, except the Steel Hawk, is a 6.6-liter diesel V8, a pumped-up derivative of a mass-produced engine. A diesel was chosen based on its ability to crank out lots of power at usable rpms. The engine uses compound turbocharging, high-pressure direct fuel injection, and state-of-the-art computer controls to generate 1,100 hp, 1,805 lb-ft of torque, and 0 to 60 times of 3.5 sec. Top speed is about 208 mph, which takes about 11 sec to reach. Still, the vehicles get 20 mpg and meet current and expected emission standards.

To make the engine rugged and reliable, it sports a double-vacuum-melted alloy-steel crankshaft and rods and special alloy pistons. A partial vapor-deposition coating on the camshaft, valve train, and pistons cuts friction so the components last longer.

A Spider Drive splits engine power, sending torque to each wheel. It consists of a mechanical transaxle and a series of geared shafts that transmit power through electronically controlled hydraulic clutches. The transmission is not friction based, which means it can take the abuse and forces generated when off-roading or towing. It can also provide traction and stability control said to be far better than the brake-based versions found on other cars and trucks. The Spider Drive can handle up to 2,500 lb-ft of torque, more than an STV’s engine can generate and unprecedented in a transmission this size, according to the company. But Shadow Hawk engineers wanted to ensure transmissions wouldn’t fail, wouldn’t even hiccup, when the vehicle is “a thousand miles from civilization.”