The DIY Tank

Will Foster, a Kettering University student, has built his own half sized Panzer tank. It took Will 2 years and around $10,000 to build his mini-tank and he says the process has been "a lot of trial and error...I'd buy a $200 part that didn't work, then go to a $300 part that didn't work before finding a $50 part that did." The tank is about as big as a small car, and can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. It runs on treads, has a cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank and parks wherever the hell it wants.

One question...

[PlatyPaul (690601)]

... will you be my research advisor?

whatcouldpossiblygowrong?

[deander2 (26173)]

if there was ever a time this tag really fit.... =P

I Come In Peace!

[wsanders (114993)]

According to TFA, it shoots Red Bull cans.

Liberation through overpriced syrupy caffeinated beverages! Bet Rommel never thought of that.

LOL! Look at the URL

[JonTurner (178845)]

"http: // blog.mlive.com/ flintjournal /newsnow/2008/04/ post_moto_kid_death_story_here.html"

"post moto kid death story here" ?!?
I'm thinking that there must be a "part two" to this tale!

$ Dollars

[by Anonymous Coward]

Is that $10,000 dollars as opposed to $10,000 donuts or !10,000 dollars, or what?

Re:$ Dollars

[tehniobium (1042240)]

The $ indicates that the 10,000 dollars is a php variable.

Interesting

[Z00L00K (682162)]

To see what the parking place attendants will say when you park it.

Also interesting to see what they will write on the parking ticket...

Re:Interesting

[name*censored* (884880)]

Just make up some fake diplomatic immunity plates for it. No-one's going to believe a parking inspector who tells people "I couldn't ticket the panzer because of Iraqi Diplomatic Immunity".

Re:Interesting

[AgentPaper (968688)]

Well, even if it were full size it'd still be smaller than any of the "Ford F-Off" (tm Achromatic1978) giant-sized trucks and SUVs that you're apt to see people driving in Flint. (The Panzer was about a foot shorter than a Suburban/Yukon XL/Escalade ESV.)

I don't think the meter maids would complain so much as the road commission. Treads aren't nice to asphalt, and Michigan already has the worst-maintained roads in the nation...

It's the weight that causes road damage.

[oddaddresstrap (702574)]

The treads appear to be smooth and since his tank isn't heavy like a real, armored tank, it's not likely to do much damage. In the video, it appears to grind the pavement slightly when he spins in place.
The treads look to be about a foot wide and there's at least five feet of contact on each side. That would give him around 1440 square inches of contact area. If his tank weighs a ton (the "armor" is plywood, after all), it is exerting less than 1.4 psi (about half what a person does).

panzer tank ???

[C0vardeAn0nim0 (232451)]

"panzer tank" ??? where did this come from ? the redundant department of redundancy ? panzer already is german for "tank".

you either say "german tank" or "german panzer", but "panzer tank"??? sheesh.

Re:panzer tank ???

[MightyYar (622222)]

I find it interesting that someone who uses zeros as a substitute for the letter "O" in their nickname would be such a stickler when it comes to proper language usage. :)

Re:panzer tank ???

[fred fleenblat (463628)]

Oh how I miss panzergirl, on the beach in her panzerkini.
But I have to get back to work cleaning out septic panzers.

In English, Panzer doesn't mean tank

[Reality Master 201 (578873)]

The word "panzer" in English is a class noun that denotes a general type of tank, specifically German, usually of the WWII era.

Words in different languages mean different things, even if the sounds are the same, and even if the word is borrowed into another language. You're not insightful for your observation - you're ignorant of language and linguistics.

Re:panzer tank ???

[by Anonymous Coward]

We are Americans here! We are not supposed to know another language! We can say whatever heck we want! Remember that for us Yankees, Canada is the 51st state, UK is the 52nd, Paris is right beside Beijing and southbound from Baghdad, the Vietnam is close to Hawaii, there is nothing south of El Paso besides Illegal Aliens, Jungle and 3X beer, and Japan, Korea and Australia belong to the same continent.
So, now get of my lawn with your German classes!

Re:panzer tank ???

[coyote_oww (749758)]

IIRC, the Panther was the PzKw V, Tiger was PzKw VI. The confusion is reasonable though, since the Tiger was actually deployed first (again IIRC). This model seems to be based on the Tiger.

Visually, the Panther and Tiger are striking different. The Panther has sloping front armor, the Tiger has a thicker unsloped front plate - not quite as sophisticated, a more brute-force approach to armoring a tank.

Also, as I recall, "Panzer" can be taken colloquially to mean "tank", but the full name of the machine is revealing "PanzerKamphWagen" - which literally translates as "armored fight(ing) vehicle".

I knew all that SL/ASL would come in handy someday!

Re:panzer tank ???

[lunartik (94926)]

Only $2000? I'm all about building one.

He probably could make some of the money back by selling the plans. An ad for "Build Your Own Mini-Tank!" in the back of Popular Mechanics might actually be the most legit kit ever advertised there.

Re:panzer tank ???

[cyxxon (773198)]

Err, no. I am german, and it is clearly Panzer = Tank. While, say, a piece of a medieval plate armor that goes to the chest can be called Brustpanzer (with brust = chest), and the word Panzerung means armor, the word Panzer itself just plain and simple means tank. Caveat: I do not know what the correct military bureaucrat term is for that, since they tend to have a word no one outside of the military uses, but in general german that is what it means.

Re:panzer tank ???

[Keith_Beef (166050)]

I believe that use of the word "Panzer" is a an abbreviation for "Panzerkampfwagen", which roughly means "armoured assault vehicle".

Re:panzer tank ???

[by Anonymous Coward]

Panzer is German for panther.

This is like complaining that "sherman tank" is redundant, cause, like, you know, everyone knows that a sherman is a tank.

Excuse me while I finish my decaf coffee and turn off my cell phone before I get into my BMW automobile and drive on the interstate highway.

Re:panzer tank ???

[sumdumass (711423)]

That why those german's lost the war. They didn't know if they were sending the armor division or a tank division into battle.

At least the English decided to name things a cover story dealing with potable water that was hiding the development of what became the first Tank. They only get confused if they forget their mission, it's either following the mess hall around or shooting up the enemy.

Re:panzer tank ???

[C0vardeAn0nim0 (232451)]

austria's official language is also german. so a panzer made in austria would be an "austrian panzer"...

i know, i know. this reply was too pedantic, even for me. but hey!! i'm a geek... "pedantic geek" is as reduntat as "panzer tank", right ?

The real WTF is the URL

[Incoherent07 (695470)]

http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2008/04/post_moto_kid_death_story_here.html [mlive.com]

Note the last part. The Flint Journal must be extremely confident in how road-safe this tank is.

Sane police

[schwit1 (797399)]

"(Police) came and they just told us to head back home, but they were also laughing at it because they had never seen anything like that before."

It's refreshing to read about police who aren't trying to taser everything that fails to conform.

Re:Sane police

[by Anonymous Coward]

Would YOU try to taser a guy driving a tank?

Re:Sane police

[meringuoid (568297)]

It's refreshing to read about police who aren't trying to taser everything that fails to conform.

It's a tank. You've got a taser. Good humour is the best way to handle this situation, don't you think? Unless you've got the facility to radio in an airstrike.

Re:Sane police

[Charlton Heston (588481)]

It's not bullshit, it's the truth. I'm Charlton Heston, I'm dead, and I would not lie to you.

Re:Sane police

[rabiddeity (941737)]

So, umm, can I have your rifle now? I mean a promise is a promise, right?

Re:Sane police

[Deadstick (535032)]

Just like when people mistake firecrackers for gunshots.

...and vice versa. When the reporter asks witnesses why they didn't call the cops right away, they're very likely to say "It didn't sound like a gun." What they really mean is "It didn't sound like a movie gun."

I remember quite a few people who thought the gunfire in Saving Private Ryan sounded fakey -- precisely because it didn't.

rj

Can't wait to see...

[gdog05 (975196)]

Someone driving one of these and talking on a cell phone.

Re:Can't wait to see...

[daeley (126313)]

Someone driving one of these and talking on a cell phone.

Myself, I can't wait to be driving one of these and see someone else talking on a cell phone. ;)

MPG? Straight line!

[apachetoolbox (456499)]

At first I thought about the MPG it gets. Then I though it doesn't matter when you can just go in a straight line. Buildings-shmildings.

Gentlemen

[AndGodSed (968378)]

Hats off.

There goes a truly great future engineer...

Tiger I

[Black-Man (198831)]

It appears he modeled it after the Tiger I. I'd love to see if he got the road wheels properly replicated - the "Tiger" in Saving Private Ryan was built on a T-34 chassis and was well... lame. The only war movie I've seen w/ properly depicted tanks was "Iron Cross" in the 70's which used actual T-34 even though it was a T-34/85 which did not see service until 1944 and the movie was set in late '43 during the retreat from Kerch.

Re:Tiger I

[bellers (254327)]

No one cares, tank-nerd.

420 what?

[starglider29a (719559)]

i see the "420" on the turret. i wonder if that's Hitler's Birthday, or something else?

I've heard of "shotgunning", but that's ridiculous!!!

Tailgaters?

[grassy_knoll (412409)]

With a top speed of 20MPH, he must get a lot of tailgaters...

well, not the same tailgater twice with that cannon...

Re:Tailgaters?

[Yvan256 (722131)]

Well, this thing shoots Red Bull cans, so it's more than probable that it's ALWAYS the same tailgaters.

They're happy about the free Red Bull but they're pissed at the slow speed at the same time!

Lunch Money...

[pwnies (1034518)]

And now all the bullies that took this geek's lunch money as a kid will run in fear - as the geek now has a tank.

I went to high school with this kid

[usul294 (1163169)]

This guy's been doing things like that for awhile. He and I went to the same high school for 2 years. He loved making stuff by hand and engineering things. He had this humongous truck, probably bigger than that tank that he constantly added stuff to. Will liked to bounce some of his crazy ideas off of us, potato guns and the like. Alot of crazy prank ideas too. I'm glad to see that he's still at it.

Awww

[Translation Error (1176675)]

It's adorable. Does he call it Bonaparte?

Time to take up golf...

[AioKits (1235070)]

You thought you looked awesome in that golf shirt and pimped out golf cart on the back nine? Wait till your friends see how you roll with a mini panzer!

Mind if I play through? *adjusts turret* Of course you don't.

paintball!

[ILuvRamen (1026668)]

In case you didn't catch it, he built it all for paintball! THAT'S AWESOME! For $2000 total that's not bad if someone were to built another one. Although call me crazy but with gas prices, I'd wanna build a more fuel efficient pod racer instead lol. Btw I love where he says all you gotta do is put a slow moving vehicle sign on it or an orange triangle and it's technically a tractor.

Not complete until...

[MiniMike (234881)]

I would not consider this project complete until he finds a German midget to drive it...

Ultimate Paintball game!

[dick johnson (660154)]

This kid has a gold mine at his hands!

If he could mass produce this and modify the cannon a bit, he has the makings of the ultimate Paintball game.

The heck with these light-infantry paint ball games! I wanna be Patton!

Oh sure, he's hot shit NOW

[elrous0 (869638)]

Just wait until someone builds a half-scale anti-tank missile.

Re:Oh sure, he's hot shit NOW

[wvmarle (1070040)]

Sounds like the beginning of a half-scale arms race.

Alarm system

[honestmonkey (819408)]

The first thing I thought of when seeing him climb out of it, is that he needs to put in a car alarm. I was half-expecting it at one point. Drive up in a tank, climb out, point the remote at it and "Bee-boop".

Re:Slashdot is getting slow

[MiniMike (234881)]

Just wait until tomorrow, when they have the story about his neighbor who built five T-34 replicas for the same amount.

Re:Slashdot is getting slow

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

I prefer it when Slashdot gets these things before any other organization...keeps us l33t :)

Huh? What's Slashdot got to do with being l33t?! I'm afraid I can't parse that sentence.