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Basically, in 40k, do some civilians on esp. advanced worlds have hovercars? Thanks.

Some rich folk do, on the higher tech worlds.

They're mentioned in a couple of the novels IIRC

I know Ciaphas Cain isn't terribly Canon, but i think he ends up defusing a bomb under a hovercar's hood in one book.

Yes, but as is often the case, it depends on the world, and they're more lilkely to appear in Black Library novels.The Eisenhorn (and I think Ravenor) series and at least one of the Cain books have civilian speeders in them. By the sound of things they behave similarly to Land Speeders.

Were the old Stealer Cult limos hovercars?

I remember having several i converted, but i can't remember of they floated or rolled...

Your average citizen, heck no, they likely have a crowded, cramped dirty public transportation system of some sort at least in hive worlds.

Yes, Hover cars do exist, although they will use a system similer to a Land Speeder and not be capable of true flight.

They are expensive and probably limited to the upper class.

Middle Class would make do with ground cars and occasionally hover bikes(mentioned in the Eisinhorn books)

Lower class would be stuck with public transportation.

Depends on the world and the tech level.

Connor MacLeod wrote:Depends on the world and the tech level.

This for almost any question similar to this...

There is anti-gravity technology, but this is usually reserved for war. If you're rich enough on a favoured world, you could get one. Everyone else uses trains, trams, monorails, but not cars.

Like a private jet irl. Only wealthy individuals or organisations have them. They're basically Land Speeders but with room for 4-5 people, and a sizable cargo hold.

As mentioned, depends on the world. They're never going to be exactly common, not to the extent you see in something like Star Wars, but available enough that those with the means could easily acquire one from a dealer or manufactorum that constructs them. Like Lear jets and yachts, though, they're conveyances for the wealthy and influential.

Funnily enough I just did a long article on the subject of civilian vehicles.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Civilian_vehicles_in_40k

Obviously in an empire of a million worlds with a ten thousand year time frame there will be a lot of diversity.

But I think generally cars or private vehicles will be relatively rare, more like North Korea or the Soviet Union than the US or UK. Private vehicles give the users too much freedom to go where they want when they want, and divert manufacturing, fuel and other resources from the war machine.

Hover cars of any sort (whether some sort of ground effect vehicle, vectored thrust or anti-grav) would be even rarer requiring more tech and granting more freedom.

They exist, and on some worlds are common, but by and large on most imperial worlds a commoner is less likely to own a vehicle than you or I.


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Ascalam wrote:Were the old Stealer Cult limos hovercars?

I remember having several i converted, but i can't remember of they floated or rolled...

They were shown as rolling



The originals from the 80s



Tim Huckleberry's Citadel Journal list from the 2000s.

Bulk freighters are also often equipped with hover technology(which in the Imperium is actually Magnetic levitation along the planet's magnetic field and not "anti-gravity")

Who knows how the Eldar, Cron, and Tau hover tech works. Its probably some sort of pressure generator similer in idea to a hovercraft today that compresses the air underneath the vehicle to give it a cusion to ride.

Eldar I know all have hover cars of sorts, but in the IoM its a lot less common

Thanks for the article KidKyoto, it's really helpful! You clearly did yer research.

Thanks for looking those up.

I'd forgotten how awesome the original ones were

I may have to build an oldschool stealer cult again

I imagine only one the absolute wealthiest can afford them, anti-grav technology is a closely held secret of the Adeptus Mechanicus and needs to be produced/bought by them directly, and there is a great deal of complexity in making it. You're not going to go to a car dealership and find a row of hovercraft to pick out, you're gonna use your immense wealth and influence to convince the Mechanicum to sell you one.

In an old GW battle report it mentioned a Leman Russ demolisher "effortlesly crushing abandoned ground cars beneath its tracks" but as always it depends upon the world and the person(s) social/political status.