4×4 Off Road driving
Although it’s not the same as Tank Driving we thought an experience that may also appeal to anyone who wants to go Tank driving would be an Off-Road driving experience.
Setting off in a 4×4 to tackle a range of adverse muddy condition you will be amazed at the ability of real off-road vechiles. It is not all fast paced action but very skillful and precise as your 4×4 defies what you think is possible.
Take a look at the following video of an 4×4 Off-Road driving experience at Silverstone done in what we think is one of the best off road 4×4 made, the Land Rover Defender!
Tank Driving Experiences
Taking a tank driving experience is something that you are unlikely to forget in a hurry. It is not something that you get to do everyday, well, unless you are a tank driver in the army or something but for arguments sake we will take an educated guess that you aren’t!
Anyway, on tank driving experiences you will get to do various different things and can vary depending on which experience you book. A highlight for many would be to drive over car in a tank and crush it, view some of our “Crushing cars in Tanks videos” to let that wet your appetite, there isn’t really much more to say with regards to that one that the videos won’t do a better job of showing!
Some of the tank driving experiences let you take in a range of different military vehicles so you may get to drive a Chieftain Tank, Abbot SPG (self-propelled field gun), APC(Armoured Personnel Carrier) & quad bikes (yes hardly what you want to be dodging bullets or bombs on in a war but they are amazing fun to drive).
Many of your instructors on the day will be ex Forces and may have served in the Gulf War and so you will no doubt get to hear many real life stories about what these tanks are like to drive out in real world combat while stacked with live ammo!
There will be time to take pictures and videos and if you bring a spectator along with you you can set them up to do all the photography work for you so you can just sit back and relax (well, not really) as you drive the tanks, if you notice your cameraman (or woman) not paying attention you have a big long gun on the front of the tank that will soon get their mind back on the job!
Your day may be a half day or a full day depending on what you have chosen, obviously the longer the day the more tank driving you are going to get to try. You will be part of a group so the tank driving does mean you all have to take turns but there is so much more to experiencing the tanks than just doing the driving, being sat in and on or watching provides absolutely superb fun and entertainment!
Now, Let battle commence…!
Crushing cars in Tanks
Now come on admit it, everyone would love to drive a Tank over a car and crush it. It may be a relatively pointless task but it is definitely something that is going to make you smile.
Check out some of these videos of Tanks crushing cars that we have found…Enjoy!
US Tank Crushes Iraqi Car
Chieftain Tank
The Chieftain was the British Army’s tank of choice in the 60s & 70s and was used from 1965 right up until 1995, an impressive 30 year service!
When it was first made it was ahead of any of it’s rivals as it boasted the most powerful main gun and also had the heaviest armour of any other tank in the world!
There were many variations and modifications to the Chieftain tank throughout it’s life span to improve it and modify it to be more suitable to specific conditions.
The Chieftain was able to hold 4 crew members and weighed in at a hefty 55 tons when at combat weight, compare this to average car weights of between 1 & 2 tons and you can see why driving over and crushing a car in a tank is no trouble at all!
With the gun pointing forward the length of the Chieftain Tank was 10.8 m, the length of the hull was 7.5 m, the height 2.9 m and the width 3.5 m. Powering the Chieftain was a 695 diesel engine which had a range of 500km on road and a maximum speed of 48km/h or 30km/h when off-road conditions!
The Chieftain eventually made way for the Challenger & Challenger 2 tanks as the Army’s main battle tanks.
Chieftain Tank
Tank Driving experience video
What better way to start this Tank driving blog off than with a couple of videos to show the type of thing you can get up to when you drive a tank. Now obbviously in a tank you are going to be king of the road, especially if you are sat behind the controls of a 55 ton Chieftan tank!
This 9 minute video should be enough to get your juices flowing and wanting to do some tank driving!