Bucket list - drive a tank?

I've had a small bucket list for a couple years, and one thing I put on it in the beginning was to drive a tank. I had seen a news article on a place you could do it, way out somewhere, and I thought it sounded cool.

At the autocross this past weekend I got to drive a semi around the race track lot a few laps, after someone that normally raced stopped by in one and offered to let me drive it. I said I'd probably never get to again so why not!

Now I'm thinking more about that bucket list. I'm 48, not getting younger, and want to enjoy these things while I still can. I don't want to be 70 and barely walking thinking "dammit why didn't I drive that tank when I had the chance?"

There's the expensive one I originally saw, packages start at $400 but to crush a car is another $600 and up. You do get to fire a few guns but meh, not that interested for the price. For the record it's http://www.driveatank.com/

Now this place tanktownusa.com is more reasonable, and GA is about 6hrs away. $75 for 10 minutes, another $65 for another 10 minutes, or $499 for 20 minutes AND crush a car multiple times!

I think I need to plan this soon... October and November are pretty nice in GA, right? (BTW - anyone actually done this yet?)

Pedantic buzzkill here, that looks a lot like a M113 APC. Cool, but not exactly a tank.

Operating costs on an M1 Abrams being what they are however would mean it would be 4-5X more expensive.

One of my friends drove a tank regularly during his earlier military days. He misses it horribly.

In reply to KyAllroad:

Which might be why the other place costs so much more.

Three thoughts - Blue Ridge is a beautiful area in the mountains, so a weekend there wouldn't be wasted outside of tank-time. October is dryer and typically warmer than November, which can get wet-drizzly-nasty quickly but isn't cold. Usually. $500 for 20 min seems hella steep to me, but it's your list and your bucket. Do EET!

If you work in the exhibit design industry long enough, you end up doing a military project. do enough and you eventually end up in and around some fun machinery :D

Jerry, I wasn't meaning to wet blanket your bucketlist. I think you definitely should do it and have a blast! Tracked vehicles of any kind are pretty darned cool and you only get one go round at this adventure.

In reply to KyAllroad:

Oh I'm still in. Even whatever that thing was looked pretty fun.

Only if there was a field of Prius to drive over...

My bucket list has a similar type of entry: http://www.stallion51.com/p51-flight-ops/p51-orientation-flights.shtml

Unfortunately, its an order of magnitude MORE expense than tank driving, so unlikely to get a "check mark". (When I called 10 years ago, it was $1,500. I can only assume its substantially more now)

See, I just made your bucket list item seem relatively cheap! That's just the kind of enabling we specialize in around here.

In reply to kazoospec:

The general consensus here at work was $499 was a fair price to check off almost ANY bucket list item.

It's ironic that you can drive the most expensive and sophisticated tank in the world for free, but a a WWII relic costs money. Of course, the latter is in 10 minute increments, the former is in 4 year increments. Oh wait, you actually get paid to drive in the Army!

Think of the things you have spent $500 on that did not enrich your life in any meaningful way. If this would make you happy, then do it.

Yeah, there's certain times that $500 is totally worth it. Standing at RentaRaceCar.de at the Ring? Check. Driving a friggin' tank? Check. Slightly bigger TV? meh.

Make friends with an operating engineer. They might let you operate a dozer for free if you bought the crew lunch. Maybe even crush a car if the boss isn't looking.

In reply to pinchvalve:

Some people pay good money to jump out of airplanes. Uncle Sam paid me to do it.

The military is good for bucket list sorts of things.

Spend the cash! You won't regret it at all.

Here's me after I spent $425 to fly in a B17. Yes, I'm in the bombardiers seat!