Could this be your apocalypse ride?
When you have a huge car collection and are notoriously picky about what you add to the mix, you’re bound to get at least one or two military vehicles in there. For some of us it would be half the collection, but for Jay Leno he’s content to get this quirky 1959 Ferret Armoured Scout Car MK2. It’s a British military reconnaissance vehicle, which explains so very much, and as you’d expect the thing is quite quirky.
Leno calls this an “urban assault-type vehicle” which is, of course, the technical military classification for it. What he is right about is it’s not a tank, even though people might try to call it one. The thing is armored but it doesn’t have treads. Instead it uses run-flat tires, pre-dating all those European cars which unburden you with the inconvenience of a spare for when you have a blowout in the middle of nowhere. If those run-flats are so great, why does this thing have spare tires mounted to the sides, you might ask? Stop asking questions and just keep reading!
We’re not sure if the 30-caliber machine gun mounted at the top of this reconnaissance vehicle is still functioning, but Leno thinks it’s funny to joke about how it’s good enough for the area where he lives. Considering the pop-up riots which keep happening near him, he might end up eating those words one day.
This Ferret was made by Daimler, the British automaker which can easily be confused by the much larger, more successful, and quite frankly infinitely more relevant German automaker. Once you get a gander at this thing, though, you’ll realize the brilliance of its non-Teutonic design.
According to Leno, these little tank-like cars were used by the British in Northern Ireland and other areas from the late 40s into the early 70s. It can hit 60 mph, which is pretty impressive for something which looks like it’s heavily armored, although we’re not sure what kinds of rounds it can stop.
Anyway, check out the video to see this thing in action, at least driving action not combat action.
