At Last! Bring on the big boys, time to drive a Centurion Main Battle Tank! The Dogs Bollocks! Now we’re talking. Fifty tons of steel, a 27,000cc Rolls Royce Meteor Engine (of Spitfire fame), a crash unmeshed gear box and a giant thirst of four gallons of petrol to the mile. Fabulous and very exciting! Delighted that I wasn’t paying for the petrol I started my Centurion familiarisation course. I was taught to drive a centurion gun-tank at Bordon by a polish guy called Ray Stopinski. He could drive the Cent second to none. 27000cc, crash box, stick changes, double de-clutching, no brakes of any use. Real proper driving. Even with 27000cc to move it about the Cent takes some skill to get moving. Particularly so in mud, on sand, and across uneven ground. Tank driver training grounds tend to be uneven, muddy places and all the mud and unevenness wants to do is stop your Cent from moving. Stick in the mud. So off we go. In a cent there are three conventional pedals, except their huge. The gearstick rises between your legs and the steering is through two tillers at either side of your seat. Pull the right one to turn right and vice versa on the left. Start the engine, clutch in, into 2nd gear and off we go. On the hard standing its straightforward. Into third gear, double-declutch, same as a lorry. Match the engine revs to the transmission and road speed. Up and down the box. Five up and down, two reverse. Gently pull on the tillers and the Cent changes direction on its central axis. Fabulous and easy, how good is this. Next day onto rough ground, ‘The ‘Ulu’’ all rough ground is ‘The ‘Ulu’’. Off the hardstanding, it’s been raining and onto ‘The ‘Ulu’’. Onto mud. The Cent becomes a strange abrasively argumentative new animal. Whereas on the road its easy and obedient on the mud it doesn’t want to go. Add a little angle of hill and it just stops. Try again, pull off, stop. Try again, pull off, change gear, just stop. Try again, pull off, build up revs, go a little faster, change up, die a death, and stop. For fucks sake! Ray Stopinski waves his red circle traffic lollipop. Try again, same thing starts, try. Stop. For fucks sake. Have a fag sitting on the gun barrel. Ray explains that the mud and the wet and the angle all serve to stop the vehicle moving. I can’t get it from 2nd to 3rd. Ray explains I need to ‘stick-change’. What is a stick-change? He explains that stick change is a simultaneous three-way action involving the clutch, the gearstick and a steering tiller that must be done super quickly. So that the next gear is selected before the speed attained in the 2nd gear isn’t lost before the clutch is re-engaged and the engine power re-applied. Oh! Why didn’t you say so. It’s as clear as the three feet deep mud we are attempting driving in. It’s a complicated thing to explain to a relatively inexperienced driver. It’s even more complicated if it’s explained in a thick polish accent, with a wet fag in your gob, while gesticulating wildly with a red traffic lollipop and sitting on a centurion tank barrel in the rain parked in three feet of sticking mud. But it worked and I got it. Once you’ve got it you’ve got it. It’s just suddenly there. A fabulous feeling of achievement and strangely enough the more you practice the slicker you get. A real skill. I’d go so far to say If you could drive a Centurion properly you were the 'creme de la creme' of drivers in the entire British Forces. Much better than 'any' other drivers, there was more to it. No automatics, no synchromesh. If you can get one of these fifty-ton steel beast moving quickly, especially when towing on ‘The ‘Ulu’’, then you are a master and can drive anything. You were the 'best of the best'. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM3X4SC2
At Last! Bring on the big boys, time to drive a Centurion Main Battle Tank! The Dogs Bollocks! Now we’re talking. Fifty tons of steel, a 27,000cc Rolls Royce Meteor Engine (of Spitfire fame), a crash unmeshed gear box and a giant thirst of four gallons of petrol to the mile. Fabulous and very exciting!
Delighted that I wasn’t paying for the petrol I started my Centurion familiarisation course. I was taught to drive a centurion gun-tank at Bordon by a polish guy called Ray Stopinski. He could drive the Cent second to none. 27000cc, crash box, stick changes, double de-clutching, no brakes of any use. Real proper driving.
Even with 27000cc to move it about the Cent takes some skill to get moving. Particularly so in mud, on sand, and across uneven ground.
Tank driver training grounds tend to be uneven, muddy places and all the mud and unevenness wants to do is stop your Cent from moving. Stick in the mud.
So off we go. In a cent there are three conventional pedals, except their huge. The gearstick rises between your legs and the steering is through two tillers at either side of your seat. Pull the right one to turn right and vice versa on the left. Start the engine, clutch in, into 2nd gear and off we go. On the hard standing its straightforward. Into third gear, double-declutch, same as a lorry. Match the engine revs to the transmission and road speed. Up and down the box. Five up and down, two reverse. Gently pull on the tillers and the Cent changes direction on its central axis. Fabulous and easy, how good is this. Next day onto rough ground, ‘The ‘Ulu’’ all rough ground is ‘The ‘Ulu’’. Off the hardstanding, it’s been raining and onto ‘The ‘Ulu’’. Onto mud.
The Cent becomes a strange abrasively argumentative new animal. Whereas on the road its easy and obedient on the mud it doesn’t want to go. Add a little angle of hill and it just stops. Try again, pull off, stop. Try again, pull off, change gear, just stop. Try again, pull off, build up revs, go a little faster, change up, die a death, and stop. For fucks sake!
Ray Stopinski waves his red circle traffic lollipop. Try again, same thing starts, try. Stop. For fucks sake. Have a fag sitting on the gun barrel. Ray explains that the mud and the wet and the angle all serve to stop the vehicle moving. I can’t get it from 2nd to 3rd. Ray explains I need to ‘stick-change’. What is a stick-change?
He explains that stick change is a simultaneous three-way action involving the clutch, the gearstick and a steering tiller that must be done super quickly. So that the next gear is selected before the speed attained in the 2nd gear isn’t lost before the clutch is re-engaged and the engine power re-applied. Oh! Why didn’t you say so. It’s as clear as the three feet deep mud we are attempting driving in.
It’s a complicated thing to explain to a relatively inexperienced driver. It’s even more complicated if it’s explained in a thick polish accent, with a wet fag in your gob, while gesticulating wildly with a red traffic lollipop and sitting on a centurion tank barrel in the rain parked in three feet of sticking mud. But it worked and I got it.
Once you’ve got it you’ve got it. It’s just suddenly there. A fabulous feeling of achievement and strangely enough the more you practice the slicker you get. A real skill. I’d go so far to say If you could drive a Centurion properly you were the 'creme de la creme' of drivers in the entire British Forces. Much better than 'any' other drivers, there was more to it. No automatics, no synchromesh. If you can get one of these fifty-ton steel beast moving quickly, especially when towing on ‘The ‘Ulu’’, then you are a master and can drive anything. You were the 'best of the best'.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM3X4SC2
Nice to see the ARV stretching it's legs.
Getting the Oil pumpning in its vains 😊