I’d imagine JCB did it for free. it’s not like it actually cost them much money, they stuck a graduate design engineer on it, got their base model from someone else, and there material costs were pretty low and they have the prototyping area and toolset just sat there most of the time, so the bottom line is it didn’t cost them much and showed the company in a pretty good light!

I thought the comment from the Tank Crew at Bovington “we’re gonna get in s**t for this if we don’t wash these sharpish” was pretty funny, clearly after they’d be smashing their tanks though the water and mud for the cameras 😉

Cracking program, well worth staying up for.

The friking thing does LESS than walking speed at full chat.

Carving up the road in the process I imagine, plus limited testing, be a hell of a job to shift it if it broke down

Carving up the road in the process I imagine, plus limited testing, be a hell of a job to shift it if it broke down

Could have been manoeuvred into position on machine skates easily enough .

I’d have like to see more of the building process myself, but yes a great bit of telly. Looking forward to the robot driving one next week.

How far do you think they actually drove the tank down that French road? I’ll wager about 100 yards.

I’ll wager about 100 yards.

I’d wager that is about 30% of the distance it’s ever travelled

Anyone who is able to get my miserable 13 year old son interested in history gets a thumbs up from me. Guy is great and his enthusiasm is infectious.

Well it wasn’t bad was it.

I’m not fan of anything War based but found the build process interesting, the methods and the modern technology used to re-invent the Tank.

Thought the tribute in France a better fit than Lincoln TBH, it’s where the Tank was designed for and used..

Bit long though the programme, like a few others of his you could condense it into an hour and that would be fine.

Looking forward to his new series..

I grew up in Ashford, Kent where there is a Mk4 Tank in the town centre. Fun facts from the BBC website:

“Last WW1 Mark 4 Tank in Britain
Ashford is home to the UK’s sole surviving example of a World War One Mark 4 ‘female’ tank.

The tank was presented in 1919 in gratitude for funds donated by Ashford people to develop the tank, which helped win WW1. It was able to penetrate German lines bringing an end to the existing stand-off.

Nearly 200 other towns who contributed to the tank fund also received tanks in recognition but all apart from the Ashford tank were scrapped at the beginning of World War Two for their materials. Ashford’s was saved because it houses the town’s electricity transformer.

Sara Parker interviewed soldiers, local people and the curator of Ashford Museum to discover how important the tank is to local people – so important that offers to buy it from as far afield as Canada have been turned down.”

I found parts of the programme very interesting, parts of it very puzzling. ie JCB advertising what they can do but with no real link to tanks or their history.

If folk are interested, get to the The Tank Museum, Bovington (I find it odd that they had no involvement in the programme.

Unfortunately iplayer hasn’t currently got a good documentary about the first tank drivers http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07tbzgx

Presumably JCB and that other engineering firm did it gratis?

I would guess so, It’s easy to forget about JCB not being in any sort of trade myself, but they’re a seriously successful outfit, £2.75Bn revenue according to Wiki, 11k staff and factories around the globe, but oddly these days you don’t find out they were bought up by a US / Asian outfit years ago, they must have had offers.

JCB advertising what they can do but with no real link to tanks or their history.

From the show point of view I think it helped illustrate that there wasn’t a ‘Tank Builder’ of course when they made the first ones, they re-purposed a load of farm and truck bits which ties in with JCB doing it now.

Showed how ‘clever’ they are though, and how cool their toys are! They seem to be still a largely family run outfit, perhaps ‘The Lord Bamford’ just wanted to be involved for the love of it – I know, only because I’ve read it before, sometimes manufactures will do something a bit ‘daft’ just for the sake of giving their brightest and best something other than just the day job to do.

I just assumed a bigwig thought it worthy/interesting/a laugh, as said can’t have cost them that much in time or resources in the grand scheme of things!

Big companies love this kind of thing sometimes. It gets their best brains energised and can throw up new ideas of how they can do stuff better in the day job. Think of it as one of the best team building exercises ever 😀

If folk are interested, get to the The Tank Museum, Bovington (I find it odd that they had no involvement in the programme.

you must have missed that bit.

boblo – Member
20 mins of telly ‘compressed’ into an hour and a half… Dire. That’s all.

I’m sure you found Michael Macintyre and Strictly much more exciting and intellectually challenging. 🙄

Surprised JCB didn’t want it painted JCB yellow… 🙂

you must have missed that bit.

The only bit a Bovington was the inside the old tank bit. I meant more using the skills of the people who work at Bovington. They have a massive shed full of tanks and bits

Surely there are two remaining Mk4 tanks in the UK. The one at Bovington and the other at Ashford?

More interesting tank stuff in the Telegraph here.
Strange the new museum to house Deborah 1 wasn’t mentioned, you’d have thought that delaying the drive and doing that at the opening would have been more spectacular than the short drive they did. Would have missed the 11/11 silence I suppose.

Pity the Lincoln police pissed on Guy’s chips though. Can’t be interferring with Christmas shopping in the name of commemorating a national memorial. Kiljoy plod.

Not quite the case, plod said “The event was not refused but further work was suggested to ensure safety.” see:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-42055141

Lincolnshire Police responds to Guy Martin after claims in Lincoln tank TV programme

Loved the programme especially the bits where the 6-cylinder engine chuffed a bit and made everyone jump. It reminded me of my days as a car valet in a Vauxhall garage when we used to start cars that had been in storage by pouring a cup of petrol down the carb. The engineering done by JCB was superb; it’s a pity the poor choice of bearings let them down and I wonder how far the tank actually moved once they reached the battlefield.

I grew up in Ashford, Kent

Oh you poor thing 😐
As an ex Willsborough then Towers view resident I really hope you escaped as I did in my early teens, if you are still there then you are in my thoughts and prayers.

I remember the tank though never knew it housed a transformer. It’s the only interesting thing about Ashford.

Not quite the case, plod said “The event was not refused but further work was suggested to ensure safety.” see:

can’t really blame them; chances of precisely steering the thing are basically zero and as mentioned earlier there wasn’t a massive amount of clearance when they did the walkthrough with the string! And that’s without even considering the potential danger to any bystanders. Out in the middle of nowhere in France was a better choice all round!

After *somebody* broke a load of paving stones next to our office (ahem) driving a forklift truck up to the door, I couldn’t help thinking that the tank would have made a right bloody mess of that pedestrianised area to the memorial.

Oh you poor thing

Indeed! Moved away from Trashford in the late 80s, but my folks still live there.

JCB are very clever at marketing. Sure they’ll lend a hand if they can get their name all over everything! Worked for them for 8 years so know how it works!
I can also tell you they don’t have stuff just ‘sitting around’ in the development area!

it’s a pity the poor choice of bearings let them down and I wonder how far the tank actually moved once they reached the battlefield.

The iffy bearings were replaced by massively over-engineered ones before it was actually finished, as shown in the programme, but I doubt they’d risk running it for too great a distance anyway.

The iffy bearings were replaced by massively over-engineered ones

I wouldn’t have said the replacement was over engineered. There was a huge load going through it. When they pulled that weedy FY bearing (or what was left if it) out I wondered who spec’ed it. That was way below the engineering of the rest of it.

Good show. Loved them starting up the engine. Totally understand not driving it up the high street, especially after seeing guys training and driving test.

Best bit was when Guy had the VR headset on and was on his hands and knees climbing out of the ‘Virtual tank’, really he could have stood up straight and just walked through the side.
Shows how good tech is though and how it deceives your senses.

Great program though, cant wait for next weeks.

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