But yeah, Hummers are ridiculous.
On the "Cool Mechanical Stuff" scale of 1 to 10, a Hummer (the real one, the H1, not the wussified H2) is about a 14!
Inboard disc brakes, planetary reduction gears in the hubs, being able to change the air pressure in the tires from inside the vehicle. My only problem with the things is that as big as they are on the outside, they're really not very big on the inside. And the fact that they've got a top speed of 86MPH (due to the afore-mentioned reduction gear). Oh, and the fact that they cost nearly twice what I paid for my house.
Mark
The VW Thing was the ugliest vehicle made back then. I remember walking into a dealership back then and laughing so hard we couldn't even talk with the salesman.
Take a look at some pictures of German military vehicles from World War II - the VW Thing was simply a civilian version of a WW II German "Jeep".