0:01
You 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
0:07
thinking, I'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
0:16
I've done christenings, kids parties, stag parties, we've done hen parties, we've done
0:33
proms, we've done everything and then right at the end we can even do your funeral. We
0:38
do everything from birth to death. My name's Nick Mead and I am the owner of Tank Limo
0:57
Probably the only Tank Limo in the world. I 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 But before I even took delivery of them a company had asked if they could hire one
1:24
And I charged them more than half of the value of the tank for one day
1:29
I could see it being a business opportunity right from the beginning. I'm Todd Chamberlain, I act as tank commander on tank limo
1:39
Tanks turn from the middle, people don't understand that. They're going to get squashed
1:45
I've got to be the eyes and the ears of Nick and warn them of any potential dangers
1:49
Something like a stretch Hummer, it turns from the front. So where a Hummer can't get, we can get
1:55
We've been around Soho and in some really, really tight places. I think the only other thing we ever did was rip a wing mirror off a transit van in London once
2:04
and the guy was so pleased that his transit van had been hit by a tank
2:11
He couldn't wait to tell all of his friends. On the upper part, you can't see the join
2:19
Obviously, we have cunningly, cunningly made it all smooth, and you'd never know
2:23
But down here, you can see a piece of strapping going over the top just to make it a bit stronger
2:28
It's ended up with three top rollers. They normally only have two. Obviously bulletproof glass so we can still do security stuff Sometimes in London we asked to do it and we wonder if it a social thing or whether it because they a bit worried about who taking a shot at them
2:45
Tank limo is about 22 foot long. I think it's about 7.5, 8 foot wide, something like that
2:53
We weighed it once and it was only 17.5 tonne and I was surprised
2:58
The speed, I'm not really sure what it does, top speed. On British roads, you're only allowed to do 20 miles an hour with a rubber padded track
3:06
I have been faster on kind of private roads, and I've had it up to 35
3:11
And I think it would probably go a bit faster. But the acceleration is quite slow when you get up to the top end
3:16
But it's very controllable. Every turn you do is a skid. So if you're keeping the power on, you can drift it
3:24
If you let the power off, then it just goes back into your normal turn. Wow, that's stuck
3:42
Maintenance on tank limo is akin to maintenance on any bit of heavy armor
3:47
Constant, constant battle. Every time you think ooh I sorted that out something else crops up If it was Russian it be easier wouldn you agree Possibly yeah Possibly See NATO tanks Wouldn be as nice to drive though No wouldn be as nice to drive NATO tanks all the tools in the world still going to be hard to fix
4:03
With Russian vehicles, if you've got a hammer, you're going to fix it
4:09
To describe tank limo in three words, you would have to say big, impressive, noisy
4:19
I can describe it in two words. Rolling thunder. Shock, amazement
4:29
Yeah, when they're on the phone and they sort of go, and that look of shock, and then a smile comes on their face
4:34
I love all that. How do you get her to complain about the noise and the pollution
4:40
Part of the amazement is people just cannot believe it's road legal. But it is
4:46
It's popular, extremely popular. we get ten inquiries every couple of days about hiring a tank limo
4:53
I don't think there's another vehicle like that in the world. When I do all these proms, I see the occasional skip lorry come, which is a bit unusual
5:01
But when it comes to an unusual prom, I'd say the tank limo's right up there
