2013 LA Auto Show - Puma THE Truck For Extrovert People
By Henny Hemmes
Senior European Editor
The Auto Channel
LOS ANGELES, November 21, 2013. The LA Auto Show usually offers
quite some world and North American premieres. But it never lacks extreme
cars. This year, right in the main lobby, we saw the Youabian Puma, an
extreme 4-seater convertible truck for people who think the Bugatty Veyron
is not enough.
The car has been designed by Dr. K. Youabian, an Iranian born doctor
in internal medicine and now a practitioner in esthetic surgery. His dream
was to build an extreme car like this and his family funded the start up of
the development and manufacturing of the Puma.
With a length/width and height of 242/93/72 inches it is long, wide
and not very low. Under the hood sits a GM LS7 V8 engine that has been
tuned to 505 hp. The truck accelerates to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds and Dr.
Youabian says that it will use 14 mpg in the city and 22 mpg highway.
The weird truck stands on 21 inch wheels with 44 inch tires.
Dr. Youabian did not want to tell how the vehicle has been conceived
in terms of development time and who was involved. But – hold your
breath – the Puma will cost 1.1 million dollar and he has written
some orders indeed!
But don’t hold your breath when you see it on the road, it has
been certified and is equipped with safety features to protect the
occupants. It would be wise to get out of its way.