TIMID drivers might want to steer clear of ‘Tankenstein’, a hotrod built around a genuine, bullet-riddled World War II tank. Car-crazy customiser Shawn Cormier, from Ontario, Canada, spent five years building the vehicle - whose name is a pun on Frankenstein's monster. The hotrod is constructed around the base of a World War II brand gun cure from 1944, with a Chevy drive train, a small block Chevy turbo 350 trim mission, a standard four gear in the back and the top part of the cab is a 1947 Mercury truck. To Keep up with Tankenstein.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 I'm working on this stuff just for the fun of it.
00:04 And you know, I get a kick out of it when the jaw drops.
00:07 That's what makes it worthwhile.
00:09 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:12 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:42 I built Tankenstein and restored the monster trike.
00:47 This is car enthusiast Sean Cormier.
00:50 He has spent years building, altering, and creating
00:53 unique and eccentric vehicles.
00:55 I don't know if I have a passion for cars.
00:57 It's kind of a sickness.
00:59 I guess I could still say Tankenstein is still
01:02 the world's only rat-rod tank, right up till someone says,
01:06 hey, no, I have another one.
01:09 Tankenstein is a mixture of old car parts
01:12 and different vehicles put together.
01:14 It's kind of like Frankenstein, where
01:15 they took the different body parts from one person
01:18 and put it on-- well, this is the same thing.
01:20 So it's just a compilation of parts stuck together
01:23 and made to work.
01:23 [ENGINE RUMBLING]
01:26 This marvelous car creation is a mixture
01:31 of many different vehicle parts, dating back
01:33 as far as World War II.
01:35 So this is Tankenstein.
01:36 And this is basically a World War II Bren gun carrier chassis.
01:42 And what we have here is a '47 Mercury tow truck cab.
01:48 She's got bullet holes all over the place.
01:50 These are 22 holes here.
01:53 And it's got a shotgun slugged through the door over there.
01:57 We've thrown them all together into Tankenstein.
02:00 When I pull in with Tankenstein at a car show,
02:02 people come running over to watch it
02:04 get unloaded off the trailer.
02:06 And there's a lot of people interested in it.
02:08 What is it?
02:10 I mean, what isn't it?
02:12 It's Tankenstein.
02:14 And it's not just the vehicle that lends its name to fiction.
02:17 Sean also likes to drive in costume.
02:19 So when you drive Tankenstein, you have to be in character.
02:24 So that's why you get the helmet and the Thompson.
02:29 Good thing it's not a real one.
02:30 I'd be crying right now.
02:31 It's full of mud.
02:34 For now, Tankenstein's powered by a 305.
02:36 It's got roughly about 175 horsepower.
02:40 She'll do about 45, 50 mile an hour top end.
02:43 That's red line.
02:45 Who needs air conditioning or windows
02:47 when you have original glass?
02:50 This is original glass from '47.
02:52 Everybody tells me I should take it out
02:54 because it could get cut.
02:55 But no, I think it adds character to it.
02:58 I don't use any blueprints or drawings.
03:00 It's all done by eye, what looks good.
03:03 If you stick to plans, like life,
03:06 plans change all the time.
03:07 So why bother making plans?
03:08 Just go with the flow.
03:10 The total cost to build Tankenstein, I think,
03:12 is right around $2,000 or $2,500.
03:14 I kind of lost track.
03:15 I try to use recycled parts, like old stuff.
03:18 But it still costs you money to buy it.
03:20 I think it's been five or six years now
03:22 since I started Tankenstein.
03:23 When you live in Canada like I do, and it's minus 30 out,
03:27 and you have the wind chill, so it's minus 40 something,
03:30 you don't really want to go outside and work on this stuff.
03:32 I keep adding things to it and changing things a little bit.
03:35 And the cooling system should be changed soon.
03:37 It's never going to be done.
03:39 I'll always be adding a little bit more to it.
03:41 And it's not just Tankenstein that Sean
03:47 has been tinkering with.
03:48 Now I'm the proud owner of the Black Widow Monster Trike.
03:52 I didn't build it.
03:53 The Black Widow Monster Trike is a collaboration
03:55 of different parts, like Tankenstein.
03:58 It has an early '80s Chevette 1.6 engine
04:02 and transmission.
04:03 It has a shortened up rear end of an S10.
04:07 The gas tank is custom built. It's a shock factor
04:10 from people when they see it.
04:12 It's, oh, that's cool.
04:13 But in reality, there is a reason
04:15 why they stopped making three wheelers,
04:17 because they're dangerous.
04:18 [LAUGHS]
04:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:30 I think my favorite of the build was Tankenstein.
04:32 I didn't really build the Black Widow Monster Trike.
04:35 I took it and got it fine-tuned so it would run and added
04:39 brakes and stuff.
04:40 But I think the favorite by far is Tankenstein,
04:43 just because of the reaction it gets.
04:45 That's my funnest thing to drive right now.
04:47 Sean's mechanic hobby has been further documented
04:50 through his YouTube channel, which
04:52 has amassed quite a following, giving Tankenstein
04:55 a dedicated fan base.
04:58 I'd never really probably sell Tankenstein.
05:00 I've been offered a lot of money for it before.
05:03 But I mean, there's only one.
05:05 So if I sell it, what do I have after that?
05:07 I have a bunch of money.
05:09 What good is that?
05:11 Like, there's only one of one thing.
05:13 There's only one of me, or one of Tankenstein.
05:16 So if I sell it, what am I going to do then?
05:19 (upbeat music)
05:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]