The TIV: homebrewed armored stormchaser
We've been struggling to decide what kind of car to get as the company ride, but we may have just found our answer: the TIV. This custom-built vehicle, created by cinematographer Sean Casey, looks like it would be more comfortable cruising the deserts of Tatooine Arrakis than the streets of New York, but that's why we like it. This is the kind of ride that can take on both New York taxis and weekend traffic on the Long Island Expressway (in fact, we imagine we could drive this thing straight to the beach; forget about parking lots). Of course, that's not what the TIV is really for; Casey, a stormchaser, needed a rugged vehicle so that he could ram into the heart of a tornado without it hitting back. He built the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) on the bones of a Ford F-450 pickup, adding features like an armored camera turret and windows built out of prison-quality Lexan polycarbonate. The TIV is a little rough around the edges—Casey learned welding just to build it—and the jury's still out on how to prevent the thing from getting lifted in a class 5, but we're still down. If he ever gets tired of it, we're ready, and we just may have another use for that turret as well.
