For the first time ever, American civilians are invited to get behind the wheel of the Soviet-designed T-55A Main Battle Tank, "Red Dawn." It's the latest addition to the Minnesota-based Drive A Tank fleet of vehicles, and the only one of its kind in America. When the Soviets come a-knocking, this time we'll be ready for them.
Due to sophisticated upgrading and retrofitting, the T54/55 tanks are still in use around the world today. Arguably, the mass-production of the T55 led the US to develop the M60 Patton main battle tank. Another badass piece of military machinery (on display at this Illinois military museum)
At Drive A Tank you can take the the M55 for a spin, as well as a bunch of other military vehicles. There's even machine gun shooting and car crushing packages. A few of the adrenaline-charged activities include, manning the Abbot self-propelled gun, enclosed combat-style driving in an armored personnel carrier, and intricate, precision driving in the T-55. If you have $3,500 bucks you can even destroy a mobile home. If that's your thing.
“I’m a big fan of main battle tanks,” says Tony Borglum, Co-Owner of Drive A Tank. “Their sheer power and enormous size make them formidable on the battlefield and a lot of fun to drive at our facility because they’re basically indestructible. Anyone who has experienced one of these tanks can tell you they loved the feeling of invincibility.”
By now you're probably overflowing with testosterone. If you still have more pent-up, aggression to get outta your system, then head to the indoor shooting range to test-fire various military firearms including "a .30 caliber WWII belt-fed machine gun" and "a current issue .50 Caliber Barrett long range rifle." You'll feel like Simo Häyhä in no time (if you don't know who he is, he's basically the real-life Finnish Rambo, a Soviet-killing sniper nicknamed the "White Death", who racked up the highest number of sniper kills of any major war).
Here's the T-55 in some off-roading action:
This is a modified Serbian T-55:
Prepare for WWIII and test-drive this killer Soviet tank