GLS-Class SUV

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SUV

Latvian carmaker Dartz is not your typical automaker. Or a typical company. It doesn't play by any rules except for the ones it set for itself, and they're lenient at best. One past example: it once boasted about using whale foreskin leather for the interior of a special edition Prombron SUV. Pamela Anderson (along with PETA) was outraged and Dartz soon changed course and issued a message: "Thanks Pamela Anderson all world whales now can be sure about their penises. Nobody will cut them to make car seats."

The last time we heard from Dartz owner and CEO Leonard "Leo" Yankelovich was last summer when he told us about plans for a new and all-electric SUV that won't be based on the Mercedes-Benz GLS like past SUV creations. These included the gold-plated Prombron made for the movie "The Dictator" and the Hummer H2-based Prombrom Black Stallion.

Today, Dartz continues to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of its predecessor company, Russian-Baltic Wagon Factory (RBVZ), with an all-new logo. Presenting 'The Spirit of Bomber', not to be mistaken with Rolls-Royce's Spirit of Ecstasy. The ultra-luxury British brand doesn't embrace things like skulls, missiles, and machine guns.

Leo tells us that he decided to tone down the whole skull look compared to the old logo. "We have just scaled down the skulls that traditionally decorated armored vehicles and made them in 3D," he said. "It probably looks very brutal, but what can we do - we have received such a legacy."

That legacy dates back to 1869 when RBVZ was founded. RBVZ's engines not only powered cars but also biplane bombers designed by Igor Sikorsky, who after working at RBVZ went on to start his own helicopter company in the US that still exists today. The new logo commemorates Dartz's military and aircraft past and adds, yet again, a skull in the center.

Dartz also tells us its newly recruited design chief, Alexander Isaev, has designed a drone that'll be used in promotional campaigns and will play a key role in that still top-secret project, also designed by Isaev. The only detail made available is that the quadrocopter drone will have its own landing pad on a vehicle's roof. Oh, and that new logo won't only be attached to vehicles' hoods but also to a "bulletproof ramp developed by the Opulence Department."