Burly Pink Pedal Powered Tank that shoots Hotdogs

Burly Pink Pedal Powered Tank
Burly Pink Pedal Powered Tank
More photos on flickr

This Burly Pink Pedal Powered Tank was built to freak people out at the 2ND annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. It is a human-powered pink camouflage art tank vehicle that and can soak onlookers in water or vaporized hot dogs. This Pink Tank is the brainchild of a 30-year-old Philadelphia gearhead Vin Marshall who managed to persuade nine of his friends to build the 2,000-pound replica, complete with a functioning pneumatic cannon. The idea was to make this beast human powered so a computer model showed that it could fit hardware for six pedalers and yield about 1.5 horsepower. Using tires instead of tank treads they gave it bicycle-like gearing to get more power from less exertion. They used a salvaged rear differential (which allows wheels to spin independently) from an old truck axle made turning more efficient. It took them 11 days and $3,000 along with suspension and steering from an old Geo Metro and a Ford 150 pickup. The frame and axles were built from scratch, to ensure the tank would not buckle under the tank’s enormous weight. Six old 10-speeds provided the pedals, cranks and bottom brackets. The group replaced the bicycles' regular chain wheels with industrial-grade chains and sprockets to handle the increased load on the transmission.Official Web Site is Tango Echo


Here is also a video and the funny thing is that the there is a clip of the deathmobile from animal house
Episode 5 of the TE Labs Show: Team Pzkpfw