Photo: Bring a Trailer
In the world of military vehicles, there are wheeled contraptions, like say most of the troop transports, and the ones that use tracks to move along, like say tanks. And then there’s the half-breed everybody likes to call half-track.
That’s a term used to describe a vehicle that uses wheels up front for steering, and tracks at the rear for motion. It is, if you like, a very maneuverable tank, or a highly off-road competent troop transport, depending on which side of the thing first catches your eye.
Look all you want, the chances of finding a military half-track for sale are very slim. Slim, but not outright zero, as this listing on Bring a Trailer definitely proves.
Here you are looking at an Autocar half-track from an entirely different era, one more than capable of bringing those World War II vibes right in your yard, provided you’re passionate enough to spend tens of thousands of dollars for it.
The machine started life as an M3 in 1943 - that would be an armored personnel carrier, one of the most successful of the war, with over 50,000 of them (including variants) made by three companies: Autocar, Diamond T, and White Motor.
The operational history of the machine is not known, so we have no way of telling if it was used in combat, but we are told that in 1953 it was converted into a Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (MGMC), which means a half-track with lots of, well, guns on it, more specifically M2 Brownings.
Apparently still in working order, the olive and white-starred truck is equipped with a 386ci (6.3-liter) engine that back in its day was rated at 128 horsepower, working through a four-speed manual transmission.
It is equipped to this day with things like rubber-coated steel treads, a rear gun mount, manually operated radiator shutters, and .25″ armor from front to back.
Showing 3,400 miles (5,471 km) on the clock (obviously, not the total mileage), the half-track is just two days away from being sold, and at the time of writing someone is willing to pay $37,000 for it.
Look all you want, the chances of finding a military half-track for sale are very slim. Slim, but not outright zero, as this listing on Bring a Trailer definitely proves.
Here you are looking at an Autocar half-track from an entirely different era, one more than capable of bringing those World War II vibes right in your yard, provided you’re passionate enough to spend tens of thousands of dollars for it.
The machine started life as an M3 in 1943 - that would be an armored personnel carrier, one of the most successful of the war, with over 50,000 of them (including variants) made by three companies: Autocar, Diamond T, and White Motor.
The operational history of the machine is not known, so we have no way of telling if it was used in combat, but we are told that in 1953 it was converted into a Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (MGMC), which means a half-track with lots of, well, guns on it, more specifically M2 Brownings.
Apparently still in working order, the olive and white-starred truck is equipped with a 386ci (6.3-liter) engine that back in its day was rated at 128 horsepower, working through a four-speed manual transmission.
It is equipped to this day with things like rubber-coated steel treads, a rear gun mount, manually operated radiator shutters, and .25″ armor from front to back.
Showing 3,400 miles (5,471 km) on the clock (obviously, not the total mileage), the half-track is just two days away from being sold, and at the time of writing someone is willing to pay $37,000 for it.
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