We Bet This $100,000 Chieftain Battle Tank Isn’t on Your Black Friday Shopping List

• A British FV4201 Chieftain main battle tank is currently for sale, complete with a rotating turret and a de-militarized 120mm cannon.
• The vehicle shows just over 1,600 miles and retains key interior elements like crew hatches, periscopes, and storage racks.
• Priced around $100,000, it offers a rare chance to own a fully intact example of Cold War–era armored hardware.

Military Vehicles on Sale

Say what you want about Bring a Trailer, but the auction site does bring in a good number of interesting vehicles on its platform. We’ve seen rare classics, fire engines, and cherished examples of generally unloved cars.

From time to time, military vehicles do come up for sale on the site. From its archives, there have been loads of Humvees, G-Classes, and Defenders, among other things. Heck, even a couple of tanks have made their way over there.

Yes, That is a Tank

More specifically, it’s a Leyland FV4201 Chieftain Main Battle Tank, or simply, the Chieftain. Now, we’re not particularly experts on the subject matter, but we do know a couple of things about it. The name Leyland should be enough of a clue for you to know that it’s a British tank. And yes, the same company that made trucks and buses also made pretty serious military hardware.

The Chieftain was introduced in 1967 and was in active duty right up until the ’90s. It saw a lot of action in the Middle East, being at the frontlines of the Iran-Iraq war, as well as the Gulf War.

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Specs? It’s powered by a 19-liter vertically-opposed six-cylinder that makes 850 hp and what we can only imagine as a mountain of torque. Its armor is five inches thick on the glacis (the sloped part at the front), and two inches thick on the hull. Oh, and there’s the 120mm rifled tank gun.

Low Miles, One Careful Owner

Per the listing, this Chieftain has “a rotating turret, a de-milled 120mm gun, headlights, and crew hatches.” No, you can’t fire live rounds with it, and it’s probably for the best. At least you can spin the turret around.

As for other things worth mentioning, it’s done 1,603 miles, although we’re not entirely sure if that counts as low mileage for a tank. There’s also room for four inside, although it’s a bit of a tight squeeze, and turret controls, fire suppression system, periscopes, and storage racks have been retained in the tank.

The best part? The lucky bidder gets a Haynes manual with the tank. At the moment, the top bid is $100,000, which is about $50,000 less than a brand-new G-Class.