Scorpion Light Tank

 I have always held an ambition to drive an armoured tracked vehicle for myself. In recent years this has become possible in the UK thanks to a number of "Tank Experience Day" centres popping up.

Generally they use Ex-British Army vehicles that are permitted to be privately owned. Favourite amongst these are the FV432 series that I'm told are simple to drive, and for which there are ample supplies of spare parts. Occasionally they have CVR-T family vehicles and there is one that uses an old Chieftain tank to crush cars.

My dream finally came true last weekend, when I drove down to SWB Motorsport at Bicester Airport to have a go in one of their CVR-T vehicles.

This was a 60th birthday present from a group of ex-work colleagues I've known for nearly 40 years. As you can tell, they know me too well!!

The experience lasts for 1 hour. I was given a detailed brief about the vehicle and how it worked by a very knowledgeable trainer.

This particular vehicle dated from 1979 and had been converted to a Cummins diesel and new transmission before it was retired from service. Scorpions with their 76mm guns are quite rare beasts as many were converted to Sabres using redundant Fox armoured car turrets.

The pre-selector transmission had 7 forward and 7 reverse gears. These were selected using a foot pedal - a bit like on a motorcycle - there's no need for a clutch - you simple take your foot off the accelerator and press down hard with your heal to go up through the gears, or press down with your toes to come down.

One of the foibles of the CVR-T family is that when you get over fifth gear, if you don't get the change quite right, the vehicle nose-dives and the crew all bang their heads on their respective hatch edges.

Needless to say I didn't go above 5th gear.😆

Steering is using the classic tiller levers - left & right - and is very light and responsive. In fact after an initial practice on the gravel runway, I was away.

The instructor remained in the turret and gave clear instructions via the intercom (essential as the noise from the engine blanked out everything that was going on around me). I then drove around to his commands on dirt tracks and off-road for around 30 minutes. At times we were travelling at around 40mph which seems very fast when you're sat in the driver's seat! I didn't get to try reversing the vehicle, but did get to try a neutral turn where you drop to neutral gear and pull hard on either the left or right tiller and the vehicle spins around on the spot. Very impressive!!

The turret is hand cranked (British vehicle did not have the powered option) so the instructor explained how the driver was an important part of gun laying - slewing the whole tank around onto the target to avoid un-necessary effort on the part of the gunner - something I'd never considered before.

When my time was up, and I'd parked the tank up in front of it's sister Spartans it was a mixture of emotions. On one hand I was grinning from ear-to-ear..... but on the other sad to be going home.

It's no good....I'm going to have to save up for another go!