The incentive bonuses are not insignificant: Automotive News quoted Miami Hummer dealer Ed Williamson as saying they could "be substantial," often in the six-figures. Williamson would know: He happens to own the highest-volume Hummer store in the country, Williamson Cadillac-Hummer. So how many of the beasts did the hottest location move in June? Thirty-one, or about one per day. That's compared to about 100 a month during 2007.

Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Sales dropping due to a "loser" image? Irrelevant products? A parent company that's given up hope? It's DeSoto, Studebaker and Oldsmobile all over again. Take a picture of yourself next to an H2 soon: One day your kids will say "I can't believe people used to drive things like that!" [Automotive News (Sub. Req.); Photo Credit: A1 Limobus]

Coggiola, a design firm based in Turin, Italy, created the T-REX back in 2000 as a concept vehicle to display at that year's Geneva Motor Show. We're not sure what exactly they were thinking at the time, but the Italians took the chassis of a Hummer H1 and made a completely custom body and interior for it. You would think they would shoot for something dramatically stylish, but the end result looks to us like a bloated Jeep Grand Cherokee that just feasted upon a liberty. Sure, the 6.5-liter turbo-diesel engine and all the tough off-road drivetrain remains, so it does retain some function to its form. Actually, with all that interior room you could probably even live in this thing, so perhaps it's even more purposeful than before. However you feel about the T-REX, the current asking price of about $800,000 is probably enough to keep away all but the most oil-rich buyers.
[eBay Italy via CarScoop]

If the car ever does make it to export to the United States, the price will likely come down (original estimates were around $25,000 a pop). A cheap, Brazilian made sports car? Why not? [Lobini via World Car Fans]

The 1996 H1 Hummer hard top previously owned by rapper-actor Tupac Shakur is being released for sale to the general public. The hummer, in pristine condition, was raffled in a contest by BET in 2003 entitled PICTURE ME ROLLIN'-WIN TUPAC'S HUMMER SWEEPSTAKES. The winner sold the hummer which now, as fate would have it, found its way back in the possession of Tupac's family. With less than 14,000 miles, the H1 is fully loaded and still in its original condition.

Forced to liquidate assets, Havenotz Entertainment has made the Hummer available on Ebay with bidding starting at $200,000. All interested parties may place a bid. Please email with any questions.

During the past few years (and even still today), nearly every carmaker was jumping over itself to bring a full-sized SUV to market. Hell, there's talk even Bentley is considering it. But back in 1986, the odds of a supercar builder such as Lamborghini producing an SUV were as likely as Martha Stewart branding a line of assault rifles. They had a good reason to do so: profits. During the late 1970s, Uncle Sam was looking for the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle we'd later know as a HMMWV, or Humvee. And just as the New York Dolls' David Johansen morphed into Buster Poindexter, Lamborghini took a stab at building an all-rounder for the American Army. Why not?

The Rear-Engined 1970 FMC' XR 311 Concept

The 1977 Rear-Engined Lamborghini Cheetah Prototype

In 1977, Lamborghini fashioned the Cheetah prototype. Talk about a bastard; the Cheetah was built by US-based defense contractor Mobility Technology International. Turns out MTI lifted the design from FMC's 1970 concept, the XR 311. FMC eventually sued both Lambo and MTI, but the odd couple pressed on. The fiberglass Cheetah was built in San Jose and transported to Italy so Lamborghini could work its hocus pocus in the form of a 5.9-liter Chrysler V8 in the rear, hooked to a three-speed TorqueFlite transmission. Hardly the stuff of fantasy, these off-the-shelf Mopar bits.

The weird off-road dynamics of the Cheetah's rear-engine setup led the US military not only to pass on the Cheetah, but also to crash and destroy the only prototype. For you Area 51 types, the US Army never returned the Cheetah's remains to Lamborghini or MTI. (Mulder, are you there?) Subsequently, the US military signed a contract with AM General to produce the Humvee in June of 1981. Though, it seems obvious to those of us with eyes, the Cheetah's styling inevitably influenced the Humvee.

Undeterred, Lamborghini pressed on with its proto-SUV. The product finally saw the light of day in 1986. Gone was the peculiar rear-engined chassis and Mopar power. In was a proper (for off-road purposes) front-engine set up and a V12 lifted from the Countach. We could pretty much end this writeup with that last sentence. Does your SUV have a 48-valve DOHC V12 from the world's most lusted-after supercar of the 1980s? Didn't think so. Pressing on, Lamborghini draped the interior in sumptuous Italian cow hide, rich carpets, power everything and AC. Outside of a Range Rover, these accouterments were unheard of in an off-roader. The LM002 even had a premium Alpine cassette deck mounted in the roof. And that was just the civilian version.

While the US military decided not to play bocce ball, despotic armies all around the Mediterranean were enthralled by Lamborghini's four-kinds-of-butch 4x4. The Saudis ordered 40 of 'em, while Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi went for 100. Idi Amin was probably kicking himself for getting deposed in 1979. You know he would have amassed a fleet of thousands. The military versions all came with a trap-door roof hatch above the rear seats, so passengers could point their AK-47s in whichever direction their hearts desired, plus machine gun mounts on the back. Actually, the Saudi version came with machine guns.

I remember in January of 1988 when the old man took me to the LA Auto Show. In the building that housed the "other" manufacturers, there was a pearl white LM002, parked right next to a now-forgotten Vector. I'm sure I saw all forms of hot Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches and Ferraris, but I don't remember a single one of them (though I do remember a Peugeot 405 Wagon...). That LM002, however, was burned into my memory banks. It was as if I'd stumbled into a superhero's garage. It was a car Wolverine would drive. And unlike the Vector W8, the LM002 could actually move. Later that year, when a drug dealer on Miami Vice was tormenting Crocket and Tubbs in an LM002, my feelings were confirmed.

Finally, before you vote, just look at it. Note the sinfully wide custom-made run-flat Pirelli Scorpions. Check out the beefy power bulges on the hood, due to the huge air cleaner mounted above the six Weber carbs. How can you not love the combination of skid plate and tubular bumpers/radiator guard? While 455 horsepower was an SUV record until Porsche's Cayenne Turbo S came along 20 years later (and as impressive as that is), we suggest you vote the LM002 because it still looks so brutally fantastic. Sure, SUV's are half-a-dime a dozen these days, and have been totally co-opted by the soccer marm, "think of the children!" crowd. But back in this Lamborghini's heyday, nothing else on earth was as flat-out awesome. To this day, we can't think of another vehicle with as much raw überholprestige. Talking with Mr. Davey G Johnson about this week's Fantasy Garager, he explained, "The LM002 may very well be the coolest car of the 80s." Meaning this Lamborghini is cooler than the Countach and the GNX. We can't hardly argue. And we got little else to say.

LM002 Bonus Points:

• A hooned out, 600 hp, full roll cage and plexiglass windowed version was constructed for Paris-Dakar but never entered. That vehicle did race in the Egyptian Rallye des Pharaons a couple of times.
  
• Between 1986 and 1993 total production is thought to have been just 328 vehicles. For comparison's sake, Jaguar made 281 XJ220s while Ferrari produced 1,315 F40s.
  
• In 2004, the US Army "accidently" blew up Uday Hussein's LM002. Is that an "oops," a "D'oh!" or just a fat old, "we suck at life?"
  
• A single Estate (station wagon) bodied version exists. Rad.
  
• [Update] Hunter S. Thompson had one. Game over.
  

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

[The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage appears every Tuesday. Readers vote the cars in or out. The idea is that we'll have 50 cars in our Fantasy Garage, the world's greatest mechanic and endless wads of cash. Would you like to nominate a car for the Fantasy Garage? Write tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "Fantasy."]

The Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, So Far:
RUF RT12 | Maserati Quattroporte Executive GT | 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage | Honda 1300 Coupe 9 | 1931 Daimler Double Six 50 Corsica Drophead Coupe | Ferrari 288 GTO | Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 | 1970 Buick GSX 455 | First Generation BMW M Coupe | Bugatti Veyron 16.4 | Ford GT | Citroen SM | Porsche 928 | Jensen FF | DeTomaso Vallelunga | Audi Quattro S1 | Buick GNX | Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R | Honorary Fantasy Garager: The LS1 Powered Rotus

Got a Big Johnson T-shirt
Got a little baby, teeny nutsack
Got a jacked up Chevy Tahoe
Sitting in the parking lot of American Interstates
Gonna drink some Buds
Smoke some Reds
Eat Big Macs
And drive... drive about 55 mph
Uncle Sammy Hummer Weekend, yeah!
It's a Sammy Hummer Weekend baby**

Related:
(Uncle) Sammy Hummer Weekend: A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing [Internal]

Got a Big Johnson T-shirt
Got a little baby, teeny nutsack
Got a jacked up Chevy Tahoe
Sitting in the parking lot of American Interstates
Gonna drink some beer
Smoke some reds
Eat Big Macs
And drive... drive about 55 mph
Uncle Sammy Hummer Weekend, yeah!
It's a Sammy Hummer Weekend baby**

Related:
Oy Vey: Toyota FJ70 Shows Up, Pulls Out Hummer H2 [Internal]

We reported the other day that Hummer's killing the H1, and now we've received the announcement to dealers from a reader. One of us here at tha Jalop has the take that AM General was making more cash with an all-mililtary production line. The other part of it, we're sure, is that GM wasn't making a helluva lot off of H1 sales. Either way, we still think it was a wrongheaded move. After all, before it was the H1, the lumbering beast was known as "The Hummer." Click through for the communiqu .

MARKETING/PROMOTION - ALL HUMMER DEALERS



Subject: URGENT HUMMER H1 Announcement

Message #: HUM20060101

To ALL HUMMER DEALERS:

This communication is a follow-up to today's IDL broadcast announcing
the discontinuation of the H1 Alpha. Please refer questions to Jeff
Edwards, HUMMER sales director, at 313-665-0230. Inquiries from the
news media should be sent to Dayna Hart, HUMMER Communications
manager at 313-665-7718 or dayna.hart@gm.com. Thank you.

HUMMER H1 Alpha is its official name, but in 1992 when the HUMMER
brand was born and first went on sale to the public, it was simply
known as "the HUMMER." Now, fourteen years and nearly 12,000 sales
later, the model will cease production at the end of the 2006 model
year.

While the H1 was the foundation for the brand, the HUMMER sales
continue to grow exponentially around the globe with the introduction
of new models, like the H3. Rather than continuing to invest in the
exotic, niche-market H1, HUMMER will dedicate its engineering,
manufacturing, marketing and dealer resources to bringing more new or
significantly revised models to market. AM General, the creator and
manufacturer of the HUMMER H1, will focus all of its research and
development efforts on continuing to make the finest light tactical
vehicles in the world available to the U.S. Armed Forces.

Due to the H1's extreme capability and durability, it helped
establish the heritage and extreme off-road credentials consumers
associate with the HUMMER brand and H2 and H3 today. Since H1 has an
unusually long lifespan (typically up to 15 years), HUMMER owners can
continue to depend on HUMMER dealerships to provide warranty repairs,
parts and service for their vehicle for many years to come. AM
General's military HUMVEE will continue to represent the brand's
extremely capable DNA.

AM General, maker of the H1 Alpha, has been converting its assembly
lines from retail H1 Alpha production to production of HUMVEE models,
which are in high demand by the U.S. Military. AM General and
HUMMER/General Motors will continue to work closely together to
produce the HUMMER H2, which is manufactured in AMG's Mishawaka,
Indiana facility.

History of the model: in 1992 an unprecedented window of opportunity
opened, when
production levels of the military HUMVEE decreased. This enabled AM
General, using the same assembly line, to build a retail-version of
the military HUMVEE, which was sold as the "HUMMER" model. The model
name was changed to HUMMER H1 in 2000, after General Motors purchased
the marketing rights to the HUMMER name. It became the H1 Alpha in
the 2006 model year, and included an improved Duramax 6600 diesel
engine, enhanced off-road capability, and improved fuel efficiency
and driving comfort on the road.

Martin Walsh
HUMMER General Manager

Related:
H1 Goes Bye-Bye [Internal]

GM's announced that the Hummer H1 will cease production this year, saying that they want to take the brand in a more mass-market direction. We think this is dumb, not so much the wanting-to-increase-sales thing, but killing the vehicle that started it all. Of course, the H1 is a ridiculous machine. But it's a halo for the brand, and without it, the other Hummers are just going to seem like Chevys with upgraded off-road suspensions and plastic gewgaws tacked on. Oh wait, that's pretty much what they are. Meanwhile, thanks to the war, AM General doesn't expect any layoffs. Cue H sker D 's M.I.C. and drop the hammer.

GM to End Production of Hummer H1 [WaPo]

Related:
Hummer Giving Reggie bush Two H2s for Being Next Rich Athlete [Internal]