THE WORLD’S only stretched tracked vehicle - the incredible “tank limo” - has been built by wielding two tanks together. The incredible vehicle was designed by Nick Mead, the owner of the tank driving experience company Tanks A Lot, based in Northamptonshire, UK, with the help of welder extraordinaire Nigel Smith. They designed the vehicle by welding together two former British Army FV432 APC personnel carriers with an original two-man turret of the FV432 used in the Berlin Brigade. The vehicle can fit up to 10 people and is ideal for arriving in style at film premieres, stag and hen parties, and even weddings. And the 22 foot long, 17 ton vehicle is in massive demand, despite hire charges starting at over $2,000 a day.
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MotorTranscript
00:00You take it to a prom and all these lads have saved up their pennies to hire a Bentley or a Hummer or something like that, thinking,
00:08I've got this show stolen. Then you roll up and drop this lad off at his prom and everybody's like, why do we even bother?
00:17I've done christenings, kids' parties, stag parties, we've done hen parties, we've done proms, we've done everything.
00:36And then right at the end we can even do your funeral. We do everything from birth to death.
00:47My name's Nick Meade and I am the owner of Tank Limo, probably the only tank limo in the world.
01:02I got into tanks about 30 years ago and I ended up with these two very nice tanks and the idea was to keep one and sell one.
01:20But before I'd even took delivery of them, a company had asked if they could hire one.
01:24And I charged them more than half of the value of the tank for one day. I could see it being a business opportunity right from the beginning.
01:33I'm Todd Chamberlain, I act as tank commander on Tank Limo.
01:40Tanks turn from the middle, people don't understand that, they're going to get squashed.
01:45I've got to be the eyes and the ears of Nick and warn them of any potential dangers.
01:50Something like a stretch hummer, it turns from the front. So where a hummer can't get, we can get.
01:56We've been around Soho and in some really, really tight places.
02:00I think the only thing we ever did was rip a wing mirror off a transit van in London once.
02:05And the guy was so pleased that his transit van had been hit by a tank, he couldn't wait to tell all of his friends.
02:14On the upper part, you can't see the join.
02:17Obviously, we have cunningly, cunningly made it all smooth and you'd never know.
02:21But down here, you can see a piece of strapping going over the top just to make it a bit stronger.
02:26It's ended up with three top rollers. They normally only have two.
02:29Obviously, bulletproof glass so we can still do security stuff.
02:32Sometimes in London, we're asked to do it and we wonder if it's a social thing or whether it's because they're a bit worried about who's taking a shot at them.
02:41Tank limo is about 22 foot long. I think it's about eight foot, seven and a half, eight foot wide, something like that.
02:48We weighed it once and it was only 17 and a half tonne and I was surprised.
02:53The speed, I'm not really sure what it does top speed.
02:57On British roads, you're only allowed to do 20 mile an hour with a rubber padded track.
03:02I have been faster on kind of private roads and I've been able to do a lot more than that.
03:07I have been faster on kind of private roads and I've had it up to 35 and I think it will probably go a bit faster.
03:14But the acceleration is quite slow when you get up to the top end.
03:17But it's very controllable. Every turn you do is a skid.
03:21So if you're keeping the power on, you can drift it. If you let the power off, then it just goes back into your normal turn.
03:38Wow, that's stuck.
03:42Maintenance on tank limo is akin to maintenance on any bit of heavy armour.
03:47Constant, constant battle. Every time you think, ooh, I've sorted that out, something else crops up.
03:52If it was Russian, it would be easier, wouldn't you agree?
03:55Possibly, yeah.
03:56Possibly. See, NATO tanks…
03:58Wouldn't be as nice to drive, though.
03:59No, wouldn't be as nice to drive. NATO tanks, all the tools in the world, still going to be hard to fix.
04:04With Russian vehicles, if you've got a hammer, you're going to fix it.
04:10To describe tank limo in three words, you would have to say big, impressive, noisy.
04:19I can describe it in two words.
04:23Rolling thunder.
04:28Shock, amazement.
04:30Yeah, when they're on the phone and they sort of go, and that look of shock, and then a smile comes on their face, I love all that.
04:36Perhaps you could get her to complain about the noise and the pollution.
04:40Part of the amazement is people just cannot believe it's road legal, but it is.
04:46It's popular, extremely popular. We get ten inquiries every couple of days about hiring a tank limo.
04:54Don't think there's another vehicle like that in the world.
04:56When I do all these proms, I see the occasional skip lorry come, which is a bit unusual.
05:01But when it comes to an unusual prom, I'd say the tank limo's right up there.