The world's most extreme SUVs

Have you noticed how SUVs are suddenly taking over the world? And how they're becoming the new default choice of the luxury car buyer? Most heads of state are now using Range Rovers more than Mercedes limos while Audi admits that its Q7 comfortably outsells its A8 luxury saloon.

With the likes of BMW's X5, Porsche's Cayenne and the Range Rover firmly entrenched in the mainstream, there's space above for manufacturers who want to take luxury 4x4 themes to the next level. If you thought the SUV giants we see on the road every day were overly ostentatious, you ain't seen nothing yet.

In this gallery we've brought together the world's most extreme SUVs past, present and future. In comparison with these beasts, the enormous off-roaders we see every day tackling the school run look positively reasonable.

First up is the Dartz Prombron Black.Diamond (pictured above), a bulletproof monster with 999hp and a 4,550kg kerb weight. The manufacturer says it was "designed by ladies for ladies" and it comes with a bottle of the world's most expensive vodka. Amazing.