All-terrain vehicles have been around for considerably longer than their appearances tearing across the sand in Baywatch would suggest. Royal Enfield fashioned the first powered quadracycle as early as 1893 – although remarkably it had many bicycle components, including handlebars.  Nowadays things are a little more complex, of course. And there are ATVs for almost any activity one can think of – and numbers of wheels can go up to six or eight if you feel like stability is definitely your thing.  Perhaps the craziest concept out there right now is the airborne ATV – the SkyRunner from Dorset-based Parajet. This high-flying, high-speed off-road car will zoom up to 66kph, at which point, if you so desire, a chute opens out the rear and the whole thing transforms into a paraglider that can cruise at 88kph at up to 15,000 feet.  The SkyRunner was briefly for sale for £75,000, but due to restrictive aviation regulations it is now merely a concept. However, keep watching this company if you can see yourself soaring in this astonishing machine, because if I were a betting man I’d say they will try to make it commercially available once again at some point.  If you are more of a water baby than one that wants to soar into the clear blue sky, the good people at Gibbs have brought out a stretched version of their amphibious quad bike that can now seat two passengers, whisking them to 45mph both on land and water. Costing $40,000, the Quadski XL is powered by a BMW Motorrad K1300 four-stroke engine that sends power to the rear wheels on land as well as the jet drive while on water. The vehicle can switch between the two modes at the push of a button in about five seconds.  But to be true to the roots of ATVs, look no further than the striking Polaris Sportsman WV850 H.O. The term “ATV” was originally coined to denote vehicles used by the military that could tackle both land and water. The $15,000 Sportsman is built to rugged military specifications and that menacing steel exoskeleton houses an 850cc engine with single-speed transmission and all-wheel drive.  But the star feature here is definitely that this is the first ATV to boast non-pneumatic tyres that are made from a flexible polymer honeycomb. In simple terms? It renders them practically indestructible. These wheels will not puncture or tear and can astonishingly withstand a hit from up to a .50-calibre bullet yet still motor on for up to 350 miles. The US military has used similar tyres for years, in fact, Apollo astronauts rode on them in their Lunar Rovers.  So, military tech coupled with automatic descent control, electronic power steering and tyres tested on the moon – that’s about as all-terrain as it gets.
Flying cars, amphibious vehicles and a model that can drive on the moon; Jeremy White looks at the most exceptional ATVs