Armored car followup!

"cletus44 aka Clayton Seams" (cletus44)
06/17/2014 at 21:44 • Filed to: None

This is my camera wearing protective earmuffs inside the firing range. I visited an armored car "factory" today and I did my best to answer the questions asked by fellow opponauts:

Rigid vs deformable armor: You need deformable armor to protect against bullets but hard armor to protect against shrapnel. The question was how do they protect against both? The answer was that they really only need blast protection on the bottom so they use a layer of both types of steel there and they use the "deformable" stuff everywhere else.

Do they fortify the driveline for the weight? Nope. Most of the cars they convert are powerful Mercedes sedans and big diesels so power isn't really lacking. They also don't touch the brakes. They do, however, shield the radiator and battery from attack and use stronger suspension components.

How much weight does armoring add? Varies depending on how much protection you want but usually about 25% the weight of the vehicle.

If you've still got questions, ask away! (The company was INKAS and I'll be doing a 3 minute video on my day to be released next week.)