My ‘Unstoppable' Army Truck Destroys Anything In Its Path | Ridiculous Rides
FEAST your eyes on the state of the art GPV Colonel truck – an amphibious 8x8 monster designed to batter through 1ft concrete walls. Manufactured by General Purpose Vehicles, the Colonel Truck was intended for military use in a radical attempt to change the technology behind producing more design purpose and survivability vehicles. This 2006 model now belongs to Ted Yadlowsky and his friends, making it the only privately owned amphibious combat vehicle in the world. Nicknamed ‘the unstoppable force’, the truck is 26ft long, with eight giant wheels and bullet deflectors.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 I'm the only person that can say I own a privately owned amphibious combat vehicle.
00:25 The building process on the vehicle started early on in 2000.
00:30 The truck was manufactured by a company called General Purpose Vehicles.
00:33 They made roughly about 11 vehicles and they were designed or intended for the military.
00:39 I had some friends of mine who came to me and said, "Let's essentially buy an armored vehicle."
00:45 And I said, "Well, let's do it."
00:48 [Music]
00:58 I think it took them close to three years in construction.
01:02 Basic specs, I believe the vehicle is about 25, 26 feet long.
01:07 It's under 102 inches.
01:09 It's actually 101.8 inches wide, which makes it street legal.
01:15 The motor is located in the center of the vehicle.
01:18 And that has a lot of other huge advantages, such as reducing its infrared signature,
01:23 allowing for more cooling from the air conditioning system to cool it.
01:27 It has the blinkers. It has the headlights. It has high beams. It has extra fog lights.
01:32 These things up here right now are bullet deflectors.
01:36 So if you're taking a high impact round, it's going to shred the round as it hits.
01:41 We have eight massive tires and we have the ability to engage a diff lock,
01:47 which means all eight wheels are spinning at the same time.
01:50 So when we go into mud, this thing drives like a tank.
01:54 Inside the vehicle, you can see it's rather roomy, very spacious.
01:59 There's seating for 10 in the rear.
02:02 And then we have additional seating of four, maybe possibly six in the front.
02:07 If one's tired, whatever, you change lanes and go to another country
02:11 and you drive on the other side of the road,
02:13 you can actually literally just move everything over and now you're driving on the other side.
02:19 You can see the armor thickness. It's pretty well protected.
02:23 And it's actually a very fun vehicle to drive.
02:27 You know, it has another nickname called the Unstoppable Force.
02:36 It will push through almost anything.
02:39 Its front end was designed to go through one foot thick concrete walls and blast right through them.
02:45 Today we have present a Chevy 3500 cargo van and we're definitely smashing through it.
02:56 [engine revving]
03:01 You literally can drive over telephone poles and you don't even spill your cup of coffee.
03:17 [engine revving]
03:22 [explosion]
03:27 [music]
03:34 This thing is amphibious. It floats.
03:43 We have pumps here. We have pumps in the APU compartment,
03:47 pumps in the center, and pumps in the engine compartment,
03:51 and pumps in the front.
03:54 We can literally just drive it right in.
03:57 We don't have to do any prep.
03:59 You need about 12 feet of water under it.
04:03 [music]
04:09 [music]
04:14 In Hurricane Katrina, the vehicles actually were sent down there to assist.
04:27 When it comes to driving it on the road and people's reactions,
04:30 they're always pretty much fascinated by this.
04:33 We enjoy taking the vehicle to car shows and events.
04:36 Let the public inside it.
04:38 It's not every day they get to go inside something that's futuristic.
04:41 [music]
04:45 Man, I've seen a lot of trucks on the road, but I've never seen one like this riding.
04:51 It's pretty awesome.
04:53 If I had a chance to own a truck like this, I definitely would bring it to a lot of parties, I'll tell you that.
04:59 I'd let my wife drive it to work. I wouldn't have to worry about getting in an accident, that's for sure.
05:04 [music]
05:06 I have been the one who has taken charge of getting the vehicles into movies, films, doing special events.
05:13 Some of the movies the vehicle's been in have been Red Dawn.
05:18 It was recently in a Fox movie, which I'm not yet allowed to disclose.
05:23 I don't like to discuss what we paid for it because there was other things that we had to do to the vehicle to ensure safety.
05:31 As far as my friends, family, they thought it was a crazy purchase.
05:36 I would love to acquire more of the vehicles, but I'd like to also see the vehicles actually be rented more in the movie industry.
05:45 We've all agreed we will never sell the vehicle.
05:48 [music]
05:53 (bell chimes)