If there’s one thing you probably know about any armored or bulletproof vehicle in general, it is that they try their best to mask their heavy body armor and fly under the radar without much fuss. However, you can’t necessarily say the same thing about the armored vehicles built by Latvian Tank maker, DARTZ MOTORZ COMPANY.

Be it with its over-the-top exteriors or outrageous and lavish interiors, every aspect of the brand's noteworthy Prombron model, tries to grab maximum attention, both inside and out. But beyond its rugged looks which honestly give off Lamborghini LM002 and HumVee vibes, there are some truly unique technical features that help these vehicles stand out. For more on this, I recently got the chance to speak with DARTZ Motorz R.F.E (Responsible For Everything), Leonard F. Yankelovich.

A Brief Overview

DARTZ stands for Division Automobile Riga Tank Zavod and is based in the Baltic state of Latvia. While the automaker is today famous for building bespoke bulletproof vehicles fit for Tsars, Royalty, Billionaires, and celebrities alike, the company in fact has a long-storied history going back nearly 150 years. I began by asking Leonard to elaborate a little more about RBVZ (Russo-Balt), the company's old name.

RBVZ was a German-Dutch joint venture conceived in the Latvian capital city of RIGA in 1869. Leonard’s great great grandfather bought eight shares of the company about 120 years ago. Over a century ago, RBVZ manufactured opulent coaches for Royal families, military vehicles, and even airplanes. But all that came to an end when the Russian revolution took place in 1917. By the early 1920s, the once-powerful RBVZ was barely building any cars. The automaker only built 10 cars in 1922.

Fast forward six decades to the late 80s. When the Soviet Union collapsed and capitalism was adopted, a young Leonard who was just 22 at the time and had inherited those eight shares of the company, decided to revive the brand in 1988, and the brand was reborn.

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An Opulent Legacy Reinstated

Upon the brand’s revival, DARTZ first began offering traditional and rugged-looking armored vehicles, but over time the automaker also began to cater to a set of clients with a certain refined taste. Although safety and protecting the occupants took precedence over everything else, these vehicles also began to become a showcase of the ultimate expression of wealth and luxury.

“Our clients want to be flashy. Our cars today focus more on the flash than the safety. At first it was just armored cars, but now our clients also prefer to do a lot more about the looks. The same was the case with the Mercedes G-Class, which first started life as a military vehicle. But now it’s all about the bling and it can even be pink. “ - Leonard F. Yankelovich - R.F.E

While early versions delivered to China back in 2011, featured a GM-derived Chevy Avalanche chassis, DARTZ eventually moved on to only base their vehicles on Mercedes chassis. Currently, they feature the chassis and the powertrain from a Mercedes GLS Maybach SUV, which packs a 4.0-liter V-8 engine churning out 800 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque.

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Luxury Armored Vehicles With A Twist

Now obviously DARTZ is a low-volume bespoke automaker that caters to a very niche clientele. The sky is pretty much the limit as far as customization is concerned. Think beyond stuff like carbon fiber, that you find in so-called regular exotic and luxury cars. From the use of rare materials like snake or alligator leathers to 550 different kinds of woods, and precious metals including gold, several versions and iterations of the Prombron exist.

After the controversy surrounding the use of certain materials in its vehicles like whale skin leather, DARTZ eventually stepped away from using it and is now working on the use of sustainably sourced materials instead. Aside from these, there’s also a fingerprint-operated safe to store your handgun or dedicated storage for your expensive cigars.

In a recent podcast with the Autopian, Leonard also spoke about how they created a custom onboard plumbing system that dispenses expensive Vodka. One thing that DARTZ isn’t a big fan of is digital screens. They like to stick to traditional gauges and expensive analog clocks instead. That way, the look and feel of the interior will remain timeless.

Every tuner can upgrade the powertrain. But we are other-level guys and we focus on the body.

Now one of the aspects that makes DARTZ’ unique is that they use some in-house technologies to keep its armored vehicles light. Weight of course is one of the biggest drawbacks of any armored vehicle and by keeping that under control, DARTZ is able to retain the stock powertrain. Another advantage of shaving weight is that it makes for a quick getaway when coming under attack in the line of fire.

Having said that, according to Leonard, it is very easy these days to upgrade the stock engine to deliver more power, but DARTZ focuses its efforts on building out the body and all the luxuries that come inside the vehicle.

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How Safe Are They?

So what kind of impact can these vehicles withstand? Well according to Leonard, DARTZ doesn’t do standard testing, but only carry-out real-life military testing on its vehicles. The standard grade fitment includes bullet-proof windows and carbon-kevlar body panels. But for an extra $300,000, you can upgrade your DARTZ to include a blast-proof shield. It can withstand everything from grenade strikes and rifle rounds up to a range of 100 feet, to heavy artillery fire and even mine explosions.

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The Movie Connection

DARTZ MOTORZ of course received a lot of attention for their appearance, in Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy film ‘The Dictator’. As seen in the opening scenes of the film, the Gold-plated Prombron model featured is all about being loud and ostentatious. I asked Leonard how the opportunity came about and here’s what he had to say.

‘I got an email from some source, that I hadn’t heard before. I first thought it was a joke. Nobody knew what the movie would be called. We got a proposal to go film for a movie called ‘Chantilly Dreams’, which was the code name for the movie. We didn’t know whether it was our first movie. We agreed and that’s how it happened. That was our first movie. Then we did Die Hard 5 and the November Man.’

Dubbed the Prombron Dictator Aladeen Edition MMXXII, three examples were created by the movie vehicle department at DARTZ MOTORZ. Now a decade after the film’s release, DARTZ will produce 10 more examples.

Retrofitting DARTZ MOTORZ Technology And Costs

Although DARTZ prefers to use a Mercedes platform to build its armored vehicles, Leonard told me that it is possible to retrofit their armor onto any vehicle. So how much will all this lunacy set you back? Well, the brand’s target audience is willing to pay huge sums of money to acquire these luxury tanks on wheels and you're easily looking at somewhere in the region of €750,000 (~$747,000) to over €1.5 Million (~$1.5 Million) a pop.

Now you might assume that the target clients would be Oligarchs or Sheikhs, but Leonard adds that sometimes, he has no idea where some of his cars end up and he learns about their whereabouts from the web. So to summarise, this little-known brand from a former Soviet state is responsible for creating some of the most bonkers armored vehicles on the planet, whose capabilities go well beyond protecting its occupants. Next, its EVs on the horizon for DARTZ.