Russian Mechanic Turned His Lada Into A Bonafide Tank
By Paulo Acoba
A backyard mechanic in Russia turned his snowy winter motoring doldrums into a snowy paradise by turning his trusty Lada into a real-deal tank.
You’ve got to hand it to the Russians for coming up with some of the most ingenious feats of engineering when handed a tough hand in terms of vehicle availability and proper tools. According to Russia Today on a video uploaded to their YouTube channel earlier Sunday, a Russian Mechanic designed and fabricated his own home-made tank using nothing but his trusty Lada and his two bare hands. Check out this epic piece of engineering below.
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The entire Lada body remains untouched but instead of four wheels and tires are two sets of tank tracks powered all by the front wheels subsequently turning two sets of wheels behind the drive wheels wrapped around said tank tracks.
Halfway through the video, the owner steps out of his Lada and peeks into the engine bay, and from the looks of things, the engine remains untouched. Inside, the steering wheel has been retrofitted and replaced by controls that we assume steer the vehicle much like a modern day tank steers.
And God bless this ingenious man as RT captured video of him pulling out a stuck car, caught adrift in the snow.
With tank tracks instead of wheels, his once puny Lada now has the power efficiency and traction to get over all sorts of rough terrain including soft snow. With weight spread over the entire surface of the track, not only can you support a heavier load, your overall car weight is spread out over more ground (less impact over a larger surface area.)
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It’s a clever bit of engineering on his part and he obviously just didn’t buy these track kit off the shelf. We tip our hats in his direction as clearly this isn’t your run of the mill mechanic.