Why Driving A 60-Year-Old Military Vehicle Is A Horrible Experience

Doug DeMuro tries out a 60-year-old 'Ferret' armoured vehicle, and finds the driving experience to be less than pleasant...

Matt Robinson

19 May 2017

The cabin of the Feret is a strange place. The armoured vehicle was manufactured by Daimler (no, not that one) from 1952 to 1971, and as shown by Doug here, it has a steering wheel that points down towards the floor, a handbrake between the driver’s legs, and a clutch pedal that doesn’t operate anything like a normal clutch pedal.

It’s also noisy, hard to see out of, and has shockingly poor brakes. As such, it doesn’t look like the most fun thing to drive on the road. But hey, it’s probably not an experience you’re going to forget in a hurry.

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

I’m top comment on this video but never in Car Throttle :(

Well 75 years (world war2)is different(historical)

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Uh……..😓……..I’ve drive my 1955 Daimler Ferret Scout back in 2014 and it was fantastic experience despite noises and limited vision. I taught myself to drive it on gravel road with semi-automatic (half manual, half auto) actually there no clutch, only you need press the clutch pedal down and change the gear. I still miss my Ferret so much since I sold it…….

I’m pretty sure it’s called a preselector gearbox.

Speaking of military vehicles,i got an ad

Armored vehicles are not built for comfort or smooth driving, they are built for dangerous situations. They’re not thinking about comfort, they are thinking about how well it deflects bullets. I’m not sure what he was expecting.