Drive a tank for fun
By tony leather, 11th Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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The experience is certainly loud, grinding, hot and dirty, but one happy customer found it awesome, after flattening a car in a glass explosion that made his day.
Drive a tank for fun
Such a tempting fantasy for very frustrated driver -being at the controls of a tank and rolling across over everything that blocks your route to clear roads - but one that, for those US drivers willing to travel to a fairly remote southern Minnesota destination, can easily car crushing reality, for a price.
This business named aptly named Drive-a-Tank offers every driver the chance to realise the dream. driving surplus armoured vehicles, including tanks, around an old limestone quarry, and for a fee getting to grind junk cars into the dirt. The experience is certainly loud, grinding, hot and dirty, but one happy customer found it awesome, after flattening a car in a glass explosion that made his day.
Tank II
Construction and heavy equipment contractor Tony Borglum owns the business - set up in 2009 after seeing similar attractions in England - which idea he was sure would go down well in American, like a kind of real-life video game. With that in mind, Tony started to purchase the types of ex-military vehicles he needed.
These days, 11 armoured vehicles of various kinds are available - on a 20-acre site 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis - the customers get to spend hours navigating a hilly, wooded course, first-hand finding out how tough armoured warfare is in real life, discovering it to be the ultimate in realism, the hard the job of driving such a beast in the really cramped conditions available brought home to them in spades.
Tank III
The drivers, preferably small statured people, are squashed in the front, small space between the tracks, navigating by viewing ahead through the hatch, and subject to lots of bone-shaking, incredibly noisy vibration, as they perform the strange task of steering, controlling the lumbering machines with two steering sticks.
For those wanting nothing more than the basic package - including the firing on the range of a heavy machine-gun and the driving of a tank - the cost is $399, though more expensive options allow the customers to drive several different vehicles models and also fire other weapons. Those drivers wanting to trash a car need to shell out an extra $549, but for the truly adventurous, customers can drive tanks through trailer houses for around $3,500 a time.
Tank IV
Kessa Baede, Drive-a-tank event coordinator commented that over 600 packages have been sold in 2012 to date, one big attraction the 60 ton
British Chieftain Mark 11 tank which featured in Reign of Fire - a 2002 dragon invasion movie - whilst a second Chieftain, nicknamed Larry, makes short work of any obstacle in its path at 30 mph.
To discover more go to http://www.driveatank.com
This incredible attraction is located in Kasota, Minneapolis, and is open on several days a month, though often fully booked way ahead, so be sure to check it. These genuinely are the ultimate toys for big boys, and everyone who visits the site talks about what an incredible buzz it was.
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