Tanks crushing stuff

Following the success of my youtube account which has now had 6,000,000 views I am now crushing anything that people request me to under a tank.  I have had a number of bizarre requests as you might expect however the current live ones are as follows
Tank Crushes a Banana - Whatever Next
Tank crushes a Watermelon
Tank crushes a Galia Melon

The grape did not work.

I have got a few more coming up including a Pumpkin for Halloween and a packet or cigarettes which somebody asked me to destroy.  If you have any ideas then please drop me a line.

Bought this book the other day for my Jeep and it is excellent for any jeep owners.  I would recommend it.

War And Peace Video

Whilst at the War and Peace show Barry offered me a place in his FV432 for a spin around the arena.  Well I wasn't going to say no, since every year I have been to Beltring I have been round the arena.  Here is two videos of the experience.  The first is heading to the arena.  The second is in the arena itself

The War and Peace show

And so the War and Peace show is now over.  The Worlds Largest gathering of privately owned military vehicles in the world.  This year there were just over 3000 vehicles I am told.  I got the jeep painted in time but had to take the trailer in the old colours as I did not have time to paint it.

Andy came to join us with his Iltis and the team was complete.  Some photos of some of the vehicles I liked are below.

I have also included a video of a T-54 with 100mm gun crushing two cars in the arena at Beltring you can see that here - T-54 crushes two cars, crazy tank driving

War a peace show looms

As the war and Peace show begins in earnest next week I have been spending the last few days getting ready for it.  The jeep, now fully painted got through its MOT although the break lights didn't work in the morning, I managed to get them sorted in time, the stoplight switch had failed.  Driving it home and the car started bouncing around the road like a mad thing.  Had to stop and take a look but nothing obvious, I put it down to a bust shock absorber but thought I would check tyre pressures first.  Turned out that pumping up the tyres did the trick.  Ready for Beltring now, I have set up the pitch and look forward to meeting any of you there.

Getting Ready for War And Peace

My long struggle with getting the jeep ready for War and Peace has left me with little time to get the jeep completely finished.  I have cleaned, rust proofed, primed and painted the whole of the underneath of the car and have managed to get a really good finish on the bodywork.  I am not going to be able to get the writing or decals on the jeep in time for Beltring but I am not too worried about that.

If anybody has any advice on bonnet numbering, and where to put markings etc I would be very grateful.

I hope you will agree that it is a great result.

Picture below of the Jeep during painting.

Hi guys,

Just thought that I would let you know the Tank Limo video has now reached No. 29 in the most watched videos of all time in the cars and vehicles category.

check the video out here - Tank limo - the worlds only stretched tracked vehicle. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jkn8brWg1I

Tank driving day

So it was full Monty day on Saturday and it absolutely pissed it down all day.  Doesn't matter though I was working down on heavy armour on the 432s and the 2S1s.

The weather was good for tank driving.  

Luckily I wasn't up on the Easy company stand, they managed to break 1 Humvee, drive shaft went and two Lances.

The pictures show some 2S1 action through the water splash and on other parts of the course. 

There is also a picture of Wayne our mechanic with his new toy, a quad bike, don't ask me why he has a ladder on the front.

The Land Rover in the background is not a military machine, but a painted civilian 90.

The car crush went well, for the first time I decided to put a camera inside the car, we found a good spot between the headrest and the seat which turned out to be very successful, you can see the video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QX1Ls1Eil0, this video is already trending on youtube.

The video footage of the whole crush can be seen here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmI1fXAPq-w.  Watch till the end because for the first time ever the bonnet of the car managed to ping off a bazooka plate from the side of the tank.  Richard who was filming it at the time had a bit of a moment when 1/4 ton of armoured steel flew off towards him.

So the car got its own back in the end!!!

Follow me on Twitter @Timmhawkes
Or see my channel on youtube at - http://uk.youtube.com/timhawkes

My WW2 Willys Jeep under restoration

I spent the weekend working underneath my 1942 WWII Willys Jeep.  It had not been treated or painted underneath for over 15 years and as a result it was in a bit of a state.  I replace the fuel tank sump with a new one as it had rusted through and treated and painted the petrol tank whilst it was out.  The finished job looks great if you can see in the photos.  I just need to get on with the top now.

Does anybody have any good techniques for painting on the decals cleanly?  Last time I did it was rubbish and I don't really want to get somebody in to do it.

I would also like to put a bit of WW2 nose art on the windscreen and give the Jeep the name Goldie.  Does anybody want to send me some pictures ideas, it would be most appreciated.

Tank limo - 32nd of all time

Following my recent push to get the tank limo into the top 15 watched videos of all time on youtube in the cars and vehicles category I have now moved into 32nd place thanks to everybody watching and supporting with comments etc.  Keep this up and we shall soon be on the second page.

You can see the video here. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jkn8brWg1I

In the last two weeks I have overtaken -
Riccardo Patrese drives wife crazy in Civic Type R - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIhGJyLR6TI
Tank versus quadtrack - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sf9Ud8KnfA
Magentic Hybrid Motorbike - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs4GXH5Q3Rk


Keep watching the vids - http://www.youtube.com/timhawkes?gl=GB&hl=en-GB

Citroen AX crush by tank

Here is a video of a recent car crush.  This one is a small innocent Citroen AX.  Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPo-8btmhmY

Follow me on Twitter - @timmhawkes
Watch my Youtube channel - http://uk.youtube.com/timhawkes

Check out tank limo in another blog

Found this reference to the tank limo this morning in a blog.  It always amazes me how many people blog about the tanklimo across the world.  Here is the link for you http://www.funvblog.com/2010/05/13/creative-tank-limo/

To see the world famous vidoe of the tanklimo look here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jkn8brWg1I

The actual official website for the tanklimo is - http://www.tanklimo.com/tank_limo_hire.htm Not the best but it gives you and idea.

Follow me on Twitter - @Timmhawkes
Youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/timhawkes

tanks are great - Can you help?

My youtube channel http://uk.youtube.com/timhawkes is the 62nd most popular channel of all time in the guru category, it is my mission to get it ranked as high as possible and with your help I will.  At the moment I have two channels either side of me.

61st - http://www.youtube.com/user/BLAQXMASQ - underground hip hop
63rd - http://www.youtube.com/user/xHikariNoHanax - Japanese Manga cartoons and songs.

Looking at the ratings http://www.youtube.com/channels?p=3&s=mv&gl=&t=a&g=4 all I need is another 29740 viewings on my videos to get past the next one, that is where you come in.  Please watch as many vids as you can and help get this channel up the charts.

Follow me on Twitter - @timmhawkes http://twitter.com/timmhawkes

Introduction

Hi, I am Tim and this is my blog.

I live in England and have two very different jobs, these are;

1) Tank driving instructor - from time to time. I work at Tanks a Lot, http://www.tanks-alot.co.uk/ in Helmdon, UK.

2) Managing Director of Unlimited Potential - Running a succesful company that supports large businesses in developing their coaching culture. http://www.unlimitedpotential.co.uk/.

As you can see both of these are very different jobs and it leads to a very interesting life with some great experiences that I want to share with you.

I also own a 1942 WW2 Willy's Jeep (picture shown) which I have a lot of fun with. More on that later.

On the web I have a youtube channel that is ranked 63rd of all time in viewings in the cars and vehicles section, in there I include videos of cars being crushed by tanks. There are a lot of my own videos and hundreds of videos of other people crushing cars with tanks. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/timhawkes.

More detail on all of these to follow, please follow me.