T-98 Kombat: Russia’s Armored SUV Built for Survival and Luxury

St. Petersburg in the late 1990s: a difficult time, risky business, and the desire to feel safe behind the wheel was entirely natural. It was then, in 1998, that designer Dmitry Parfenov conceived of creating a personal vehicle that would combine the seemingly impossible: an armored car with a luxury interior and off-road capabilities. The name T-98 is simple: "Theme of 1998.” No military secret, just chronology. From Personal Project to Production Parfenov was not just a self-taught inventor. In the 1980s, he had already gained nationwide attention with his sports coupe projects Laura and Okhta. Together with the St. Petersburg company Autokad, which specialized in armoring cash-in-transit vehicles, they assembled a team and created the first test prototype in two years.