I Drove an Armored Military Vehicle Around Suburban Nashville

this is a ferret it's an armored military vehicle that was made throughout the 1950s and 60s for use by the British Army who used it all the way through the 1980s in hostility in war zones and combat areas today I'm going to drive it around suburban Nashville yes that's right I formed to Nashville to borrow this ferret from a viewer because down here in Tennessee they let you drive this thing on the street up in the Northeast where I live you have to have a permit to sneeze but in Tennessee they're like does it have wheels does it have lights did you pay your registration fees all right go ahead drive it on the street so this thing has a license plate and it's completely legal to drive on the street even though it has no readily apparent doors so here's what I'm going to do first I'm going to take the ferret out on the roads here in suburban Nashville and I'm going to use it to run a few errands then I'm going to bring it back here and I'm going to show you all of its unusual courts and weird features of which I'm sure there are very very many and of course if you want to know more about my experience driving a sixty-year-old military vehicle around suburban Tennessee click the link below to check out my column on autotrader.com slash oversteer right now time to get on the road but first I have to get inside it's not that easy to do this thing does not have any door so I got in but then I had to learn how to operate the thing the owner gave me a quick tutorial it's more complicated than you might think and then it was time for me to do a few laps around a parking lot my god [Music] since I was clearly experienced and in a singing and reasonable frame of mind I decided it was time for the next adventure going to get that which meant taking it out on the road [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] Whitfield is design man and not like a big eyed man like a reasonably lineman the great horrible man [Laughter] [Laughter] [Music] I got to the gas station and climbed out of the ferret I was perhaps not surprisingly the single most popular person there [Music] this is every place I look someone's taking a picture there's a woman over there trying to be clear petitions event very funny this is not a vehicle you see every day at the gas station I guess it's an old it's an old armored military car you had there's no doors all armored that you guys climbing through the roof yeah I know it was a little earlier than that like 50 60 this is 60 - all right thanks guys awful and so now it's time to get going again I got me good at that let's do it yes after attracting an enormous amount of attention of the gas station it was time to move on to my next era well I'm hungry so I figured now it's time for lunch now I'm sitting in the turret position so I can order something the drive-through I get a chicken nuggets and a sundae please like a six pack of nuggets and a Sunday why would bad oh alright thank you needless to say I wasn't the usual sight in the drive-thru line hi there this isn't some no yet [Music] hi there yeah he rides a little bar thank you very much this thing's can go up to 50 miles an hour but I don't know that I'd like to be sitting up here when it's doing 50 the crazy part is it can do also 50 in Reverse [Music] thank you very much no no it's good I'm gonna I got sauce in the tank thanks thanks very much appreciated thank you with my earrings complete it was now time to drive the ferret back to its owner's garage and eventually I started to get the hang of it but it wasn't all easy oh my god break fortunately I got the ferret back safe and sound okay so you've seen the ferret in action now it's time for me to show you all the weird quarks and features on this thing I've discovered in the last couple of hours behind the wheel I'll start with these things you probably saw them mounted on the front those would be grenade launchers and there's six of them three on each side controlled with switches marked one through six inside the cabin next up let's discuss the gun it's fake of course it was a real gun but it's been demilitarized and cut into pieces and stuck back together again the only sounds it makes are these next up is the windshield and it's hilariously small windshield wiper now I told you the windshield is the size of an iPad and really it is here are my fingers for scale the side windows are armoured plates they can be raised when you're just driving around the suburbs or they can be lowered in combat when they're down this is all you can use to see the thing does have headlights and strangely enough my personal favorite turn signals inside this is a view you get from the drivers seat note how the steering wheel points downwards towards your feet these are the incredibly old-school controls you use to start and operate the third and here's the one for the turn signals and no it doesn't cancel automatically yes the parking brake is in the center of the incredibly small foot well and over on the side is the gear lever first and second are up at the top third is on the bottom fourth is on the upper right and the last year really is marked top neutral is in the middle the rest of the interior is a hodgepodge of complex wires and connections that new god knows what oh and there are two seats on either side of the driver count the guy up top and this thing is the world's most cramped four seater and that ladies and gentlemen is a comprehensive tour of the ferrets on my youtube-channel I primarily make videos with exotic sports cars and brand new models and with my own cars but folks when you're given an opportunity to drive around and this thing well that's an opportunity you just don't pass up and so now you know and I know what it's like to drive around suburban Nashville in a 60 year old British military vehicle built for war zones you're a good nugget a good nugget

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,781,104

Rating: 4.8063436 out of 5

Keywords: military vehicle, ferret, ferret tank, tank on the road, driving a tank, driving a military vehicle, doug demuro, demuro

Id: v5tTSfWMeNo

Length: 11min 23sec (683 seconds)

Published: Thu May 18 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/RoosterDentures]

"no I'm good I have sauce in the tank" is the single best thing Doug has ever said

[u/yatlvcar]

Take it to Carmax!

[u/[deleted]]

Still better visibility than a Camaro.

[u/pet_the_puppy]

Why

[u/jd13jd13]

So many questions!

• Did you ever think when making the GT-R video that you'd have a stranger drive through experience?

• It does 50 in reverse? Why did you not do a reverse drag race with the owner's SLR?!

• Does "grenade launchers with individual control switches" now top the list of your favorite quirks?

Next, you have to drive /u/govschwarzenegger's tank!

[u/pandito_flexo]

/u/Doug-DeMuro needs to stop making videos with cool cars. I don't have enough money to buy all the cool cars with which he test drives. On a side note - can you imagine having to change the tires on that in the field...in sand?

[u/jamievisive]

/u/Doug-DeMuro just as a random story for you, a kid (and his dad) I was in class with in secondary school brought one of these to restore, so occasionally he would bring it to school after he passed his test. I think he won coolest car in the parking lot those days! So yes, these are fully legal to drive on UK roads!

[u/thethunderbirdguy]

I miss comfortable cars!!!

lolol. that was hilarious!

[u/C_Seabaugh]

Yeah, well I drove an armored military vehicle around suburban Wisconsin. Take that!

http://www.motortrend.com/news/oshkosh-jltv-first-drive/

(Hi, Doug. Nice vid!)