Monday, January 15, 2024

A blast from the military past

 

I was amused to come across a publicity video from Toyo Tires, made several years ago, showing a highly modified and upgraded British Ferret scout car going flat-out across country and over dirt roads.  It's certainly an impressive performance, particularly considering that the original Ferret, as built, could do perhaps 45-50 mph over such surfaces at the best of times.




You can read more about the modifications to the Ferret in this article.  Here's a "making of" vignette showing how they prepared for that video.




I found it entertaining because I remember the Ferret in its military version.  South Africa bought several hundred of them, and operated them into the 1970's until they were replaced by locally built and improved variants of the Panhard AML series armored cars.  The little Ferret (less than 4 tons in weight, as I recall, and smaller than a US HUMVEE) struggled to cope with the thick, soft sand of African trails, and its poorly ventilated steel hull and very cramped interior (without air-conditioning) produced nightmarish conditions for its crews in the scorching heat of an African summer.  Still, it kept going, and did reasonably effective work for a couple of decades before it grew too long in the teeth for further service.

In case you don't know the Ferret, here's Jay Leno with an example from his extensive collection.  I chose this video rather than more "historic" ones on YouTube because it's simply more entertaining.




They look ridiculously simple in comparison to today's military vehicles, but for their time they were front-line technology, and served all over the British Commonwealth.  I daresay many old soldiers still remember them with affection.

Peter


5 comments:

  1. I have seen several Ferrets in museums, and they are really, really tiny. More like an ATV than an armored car.

    Met also a former crewman that was in BAOR, stationed in the FRG border. In case of conflict, he was to give warning of the Red tanks approaching, and he was not expected to do anything after 48 hours of contact. Sobering thought.

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  2. But KISS was better, especially in "military" situations.
    How many video's do you see of an eleventy-billion dollar tank getting taken out by a hand grenade from a $1500 dollar drone?
    Gimme a jeep w/ a browning on a swivel...

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  3. The Ferret was basically a small floor safe with wheels, and today's Mk 19 AGL would make short work of one.

    They were the UK version of Purple Heart boxes, and most of those would be posthumous awards.

    Their only forte would be against unarmed civilian mobs or natives armed with bows and arrows.
    And even then, against one beer bottle of half high test/half dish soap, the Ferret and crew are road kill.

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  4. NOT made for anybody that was 'above average' in size or weight.

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  5. Reminds you of the line from the original "Die Hard" movie -" Ohh, look! The Police have an R/V!" Though I believe that was a Cadillac-Gage "Commando" armored car...

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