Here is one to make you drool! I wish I had a back yard like this.
Ken
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the place I worked for had a brand new M46 tank that had less than five miles on it. Had never seen a drop of rain or snow flake. It sat indoors in a climate controlled atmosphere. As a kid; I remember climbing on it! In that area were two or three brand new V1710 aircraft engines and all sorts of gas turbines and jet engines. They just decided one day that they needed that space. They called Ft. Knox and offered to give the tank to them. The Army didn’t want it!! Here was a tank that didn’t even have a chip in the paint job. Was hand washed about every 120 days. So they offered it to Ropke and Littlefield and one other group. Each said I’ll take it. Then the Army showed up one day with a flat bed to take it to Knox. Problem was that nobody knew how to drive the thing, and looking around they found a guy on a production line that crewed on an M46. When it got to Ft. Knox they sat it outside in the weather
gary
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That is a very sad story.
Back in the late 2000s, I met Mr. Littlefield and toured his tank collection. All restored vehicles and items, plus a fair number of vehicles awaiting restoration, were stored in large, clean, climate controlled structures. The tank you describe would have been very well cared for while he lived, had he acquired it.
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Governments …
or any other organisation where someone elses money pays the bills …
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the only mileage that tank had was the test track plus loading and off loading. Last I heard Littlefield had the G.M. built XM1 tank, but have not seen or heard anything about it in years
gary
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You mean this one?
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Looks like it’s missing a few bits.
This is how they got it before restoration.
More pictures from Toadman.
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looks like it
gary
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most folks don’t know it, but the Merkava would never have came about had G.M. got the contract instead of Chrysler. They sent a group over to look at it, and drive it. They also drove the other tank, but didn’t like the idea of the gas turbine. Performance wise, they were similar. Yet off the road the G.M. tank was better. How I don’t know. They almost built it anyway, as Korea, Egypt, and Israel were interested in it. Carter killed it, just like the F17
gary
1 Like