FEAST your eyes on the state of the art GPV Colonel truck – an amphibious 8x8 monster designed to batter through 1ft concrete walls. Manufactured by General Purpose Vehicles, the Colonel Truck was intended for military use in a radical attempt to change the technology behind producing more design purpose and survivability vehicles. This 2006 model now belongs to Ted Yadlowsky and his friends, making it the only privately owned amphibious combat vehicle in the world. Nicknamed ‘the unstoppable force’, the truck is 26ft long, with eight giant wheels and bullet deflectors.
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MotorTranscript
00:00I'm the only person that can say I own a privately owned amphibious combat vehicle.
00:25The building process on the vehicle started early on in 2000.
00:30The truck was manufactured by a company called General Purpose Vehicles.
00:33They made roughly about 11 vehicles, and they were designed or intended for the military.
00:39I had some friends of mine who came to me and said,
00:42let's essentially buy an armored vehicle.
00:45And I said, well, let's do it.
00:47Let's do it.
00:58I think it took them close to three years in construction.
01:04Based on specs, I believe the vehicle is about 25, 26 feet long.
01:07It's under 102 inches.
01:09It's actually 101.8 inches wide, which makes it street legal.
01:15The motor is located in the center of the vehicle,
01:18and that has a lot of other huge advantages,
01:20such as reducing its infrared signature,
01:23allowing for more cooling from the air conditioning system to cool it.
01:27It has the blinkers. It has the headlights.
01:29It has high beams. It has extra fog lights.
01:33These things up here right now are bullet deflectors.
01:36So if you're taking a high impact round, it's going to shred the round as it hits.
01:41We have eight massive tires, and we have the ability to engage a diff lock,
01:47which means all eight wheels are spinning at the same time.
01:50So when we go into mud, this thing drives like a tank.
01:55Inside the vehicle, you can see it's rather roomy, very spacious.
01:59There's seating for 10 in the rear,
02:02and then we have additional seating of four, maybe possibly six, in the front.
02:07If one's tired, whatever, you change lanes and go to another country,
02:11and you drive on the other side of the road,
02:13you can actually literally just move everything over,
02:17and now you're driving on the other side.
02:19You can see the armor thickness.
02:21It's pretty well protected, and it's actually a very fun vehicle to drive.
02:29You know, it has another nickname called the Unstoppable Force.
02:37It will push through almost anything.
02:39Its front end was designed to go through one foot thick concrete walls
02:44and blast right through them.
02:48Today we have present a Chevy 3500 cargo van,
02:54and we're definitely smashing through it.
03:06Literally, you can drive over telephone poles,
03:09and you don't even spill your cup of coffee.
03:37This thing is amphibious. It floats.
03:41We have pumps here. We have pumps in the APU compartment,
03:45pumps in the center, and pumps in the engine compartment,
03:49and pumps in the front.
03:52We can literally just drive it right in.
03:55We don't have to do any prep.
03:57You need about 12 feet of water under it.
04:06[♪ music playing ♪
04:22In Hurricane Katrina, the vehicles actually were sent down there to assist.
04:27When it comes to driving it on the road and people's reactions,
04:31they're always pretty much fascinated by this.
04:33They enjoy taking the vehicle to car shows and events,
04:36let the public inside it.
04:38I mean, it's not every day they get to go inside something that's futuristic.
04:45Man, I've seen a lot of trucks on the road,
04:48but I've never seen one like this riding.
04:51It's pretty awesome.
04:53If I had a chance to own a truck like this,
04:56I definitely would bring it to a lot of parties, I'll tell you that.
04:59I'd let my wife drive it to work.
05:01I wouldn't worry about getting in an accident, that's for sure.
05:06I have been the one who has taken charge of getting the vehicles into movies,
05:10films, doing special events.
05:14Some of the movies the vehicle's been in have been Red Dawn.
05:18It was recently in a Fox movie, which I'm not yet allowed to disclose.
05:23I don't like to discuss what we paid for it,
05:25because there was other things that we had to do to the vehicle
05:29to ensure safety.
05:31As far as my friends, family, they thought it was a crazy purchase.
05:36I would love to acquire more of the vehicles,
05:38but I'd like to also see the vehicles actually be rented more in the movie industry.
05:45We've all agreed we will never sell the vehicle.