When the call came asking me if I wanted to drive a “specialty vehicle,” being the adventurous type of guy, I am, I said, “Why not?” Only then did I think to ask what it was. “Hummer,” was the answer.

You bet I’m interested I thought to myself, and immediately patted myself on the back for being such a risk taker.

So when the Firehouse red Hummer H1 was delivered, I was ready. My first impression was how anemic it made my own 3/4-ton, four wheel-drive pickup look in comparison. But I was up for a unique driving experience.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a fleet of Hummers, but at the $111,302 this one stickered out at, I didn’t see one in my near future.

However, this is the ultimate off-road vehicle. Except for its extraordinary width — it has a 72-inch-wide track — which didn’t fit through the drive-up window at my local bank, I think the Hummer is the best thing I’ve ever seen to take off-road. The width also makes the Hummer a bit of a challenge to drive on narrow city streets. But I did notice that except for the morons who were mesmerized by the sight of it and all but drove right into me staring at it, most other drivers do get out of the way when they see it coming. Could this be the perfect urban assault vehicle to master Puget Sound traffic? Possibly.

So, just what exactly is a Hummer? For those of you who don’t know, it’s the civilian version of the Humvee, which began taking the place of the Jeep in the U.S. armed forces during the mid-1980s.

It’s made by AM General Corp., once a part of now-defunct American Motors. In the early ‘80s, the company designed the Humvee, which is short for “high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle,” and won a contract to make them for the U.S. military. They were stars in Operation Desert Storm.

General Motors is scheduled to come out with a more refined version — The H2, which is scheduled to hit the showrooms this summer. Pricing hasn’t been announced other than to say it will be competitive with other luxury-class sport utility vehicles.

The popularity of the Hummer owes its existence in part to Schwarzenegger who saw a convoy of Army Humvees along I-5 while he was on location in Oregon filming Kindergarten Cop. Intrigued, he started trying to find out where to get one. At the time they were only being built only for the military and were not sold to individuals.

But leave it to Arnold’s persuasive abilities and the great publicity the vehicles got during Desert Storm. AM General decided to build a civilian version, and naturally, the first one was delivered to Schwarzenegger in July of 1992. He’s built his own fleet since then.

This is definitely a unique vehicle. It can be driven through water up to 30 inches deep (60 inches for the military versions) and was designed to be dropped by parachute and lifted by helicopter (the civilian model also has helicopter lift-hooks), It can go downhill at a 45-degree angle and has 16 inches of ground clearance — twice that of the average SUV.

The Hummer comes with Goodyear off-road tires that are 3 feet tall and can be inflated and deflated depending on your need, while the vehicle is in motion by flipping a dashboard mounted switch. There’s also a pressure gauge located right next to the switch.

It has a steel-box frame with five heavy-duty cross members and a bonded and riveted aluminum-alloy body and fiberglass flip up hood. It’s more like an aircraft fuselage than a truck. It can also carry up to 4,000 pounds of people and cargo. The four-wheel independent suspension is outstanding off-road, allowing each tire to find its own particular place on very uneven terrain.

Four civilian models are offered — a four-door soft-top version; two-door soft-top; four-door hard top; and four-door wagon, which is what our test model was.

Hummers are powered by a General Motors 6.5-liter turbodiesel engine that puts 195 horses to the terrain with 430 foot-pounds of torque. It comes with full-time four-wheel drive, a heavy-duty four-speed automatic transmission, a two-speed transfer case for low-gear operation off-road, and a combination traction-control/antilock braking system.

As big and heavy as it is, it’s not fast. But it’s no slouch either. Top speed is about 85 mph, and it takes about 12 seconds to do the zero to 60 drill. But there is lots of low-speed power for hill climbing and towing, and enough power for highway driving.

There is a lot of wasted interior room because the engine, transmission and transfer case take up a huge area right down the center of the passenger compartment. Our vehicle had four seats, all on the outside corners, with a huge table-like area between the seats. The bucket seats are comfortable and fully adjustable, but they are a little cramped. The Hummer is so wide that if you put something in the area between the seats and it slides over to the other side, you have to get out and walk around to retrieve it. Getting into the Hummer is also a challenge for ladies in skirts.

There are creature comforts not found in the military version. It comes standard with air-conditioning, inboard-mounted four-wheel disc brakes, power steering, tinted glass, power windows and door locks with keyless remote, and even cupholders and grab handles.

Fuel economy — well, forget about it. There are two tanks, though — a 25-gallon main and a 17-gallon reserve which can be switched with the push of a button on the dash.

Bottom Line: This thing is too cool. You’ll catch yourself doing a Tim Allen grunt every time you climb in. It’s a totally awesome off-road performer and a credible highway machine, with lots of power, fairly decent on-road handling and a ride only slightly worse than most 3/4-ton 4X4 pickups.

For more info on the Hummer, including the soon to be released H2, as well as some way cool video clips of its off-road capabilities, check out www.hummer.com.