Image via Westen Champlin/YouTube
We love crazy car builds, even when technically they’re tanks. In fact, we especially love crazy tank builds (if you know, you know). This one packing a 1,000-horsepower Cummins diesel engine doesn’t disappoint. Called the Car Killer, it’s ready to flatten your grandma’s Buick and some sand dunes with anything but grace.
Robot tanks could be in the future of warfare.
You might have noticed strapped to the top of the tank is an old Ford Ranger body. It’s a rather unconventional way of driving such a military machine that absolutely would be idiotic in wartime. But in this time of unprecedented peace and YouTube shenanigans, Westen Champlin decided it was the way to do it.
And we actually dig that setup, at least for the most part. The cargo straps holding it onto the tank chassis seems a little sketchy, but the command position it puts the driver is superior. After all, in a regular tank the driver enjoys limited visibility (except in some truly modern setups where they have cameras all over the place.
But with the pickup body strapped to the top, the driver can see everything. The only concern we’d have is if the tank rolls, well you’re not walking away from that one.
If you know anything about tanks, their controls are nothing like what you find in a passenger car. Those have been re-routed to the cab of the truck body bolted up top and the setup looks pretty weird, but it works. Access to the engine and transmission (which was blown up doing high-speed testing before) is through the bed frame (the actual bed has been cut out for that purpose.
Most people would create something like this for a Monster Truck Jam or maybe a no-rules demolition derby. But Champlin isn’t normal, he’s a lot of fun, so he takes the Car Killer to McDonald’s.
Just like with so many project cars, the tank experienced a problem on the open road. After troubleshooting the problem, they get the think running great and make it to McDonald’s as well as some sand dunes
Images via Westen Champlin/YouTube
