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Cincinnati Motor Car, an independent car repair facility in Madisonville, Ohio, got the nod to get another British armored vehicle running. Earlier this year they brought a Ferret scout car back to life, and this time it's a Scorpion tank that needed a helping hand.
Cincinnati Motor Car's owner, John Brindle, at the wheel
This tank belongs to the famous (or infamous) John Coyne, a notable Cincinnati figure that made a big splash back in the 60's and 70's with his armored vehicles, which he used to indicate his displeasure with Clermont County's legal and political bosses. You can read more about him here, if you can get past Cincinnati.com's paywall. One of his tanks made an appearance in the movie "Blues Brothers". I used to hang out in his junkyard when I was 16 scavenging parts for cars, and he would roar up and down the hill of the yard in an old army halftrack.
Running the engine up...
The Scorpion was an armored tracked reconnaissance vehicle for the British Army. It was powered by a 4.2 liter Jaguar car engine, had a 100 gallon petrol tank, inboard disc brakes, 76mm gun, aluminum armor and a commode under the driver's seat. The tank served well in the Falklands War, and towards the 90's was fitted with a Perkins diesel engine, just before being drummed out of service with the British. Diesel engines are the ticket for war fighting machines, as they aren't as hard to set alight as gasoline ones are.
Sorting out the details
A new engine has just been installed this week in this particular Scorpion, and when I was there it was just getting sorted out. This vehicle has it all, British armor, Jaguar engine and street legal, just the thing for an anglophile car guy.
The engine in it's new home
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While rummaging around Flikr today ran across this pic of a junkyard in Guadalcanal in 1945. What aircraft restoration guys today wouldn't give for this pile of parts. Most likely all went to the smelters, but there are at least 5 P-38 airframes in there. If only time travel were possible, there wouldn't be a shortage of warplanes for museums and enthusiasts worldwide. Not to many years ago, if a guy wanted a P-38, he had to dig down 260 feet into Greenland's ice to get one. Out of 10,000 built, fewer than 25 are around today, and only about 9 of those can still fly.
From Adelaide Archivist on Flikr
The P-38 was the primary long range fighter for the US in the Pacific, but was used extensively elsewhere. These were the planes that killed Yamamoto in retaliation for the Pearl Harbor attack, and were called "Fork Tailed Devils" by German adversaries, or "Two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese. Not a forgiving aircraft, most of the survivors have been rebuilt from crashes more than once. It has been said the P-38's in the picture were all written off from crashes. But the math was right for the ones that didn't crash. 2 Allison V-12's, divided by 4 Browning 50 caliber machine guns plus one 20mm Hispano cannon.
This video from HucksterFoot's channel is the news story for the recovery of Glacier Girl