Originally Posted by
Czechsix
I'll see if I can dig something up. Whatever I find, I'll post.
You never, ever know what'll turn up out in the world. Case in point: I've been interested for many years in the tristar wheel concept, used to visit the old Landmaster every so often when it was still in southern california. I remember reading about a few testbed vehicles put out by Lockheed, and they were actually thinking about marketing them as recreational vehicles. Was going to be called the "TerraStar". All I ever saw on them were photos...at least until....
There's a large historic military vehicle meet in California called the Tower Park Meet. Lots of us nuts show up there, with all sorts of interesting things. It was the end of the meet, and I was sitting down with a few friends and a beer or two, watching the park empty, and saying good bye till next year to buddies that were driving out. Then I spotted a truck and trailer driving in, with a faded yellow vehicle on the back, about the size of a VW. I took one look at it, whooped, and ran over while he was driving in. I followed him until he parked, and talked to the driver. It was an 18 year old - him and his dad had just finished restoring a mule that they brought to the meet, and when they were showing it, a local farmer showed up and asked if they might be interested in trading it for something else he had in his barn. Seems the farmer bought this vehicle years back at a government auction, ran it a bit, it broke down and was parked for years. To make a long story short, the kid went out with the mule, and swapped right there for the TerraStar. As far as I know, only three of them were built. I took lots of photos, it was in very complete condition. Had a VW engine for a power plant, I'd have to dig up the pics for any more info. Can't remember if it had a t20 in it, but it was a skid steer, chain drive, amphibious atv. I never thought I'd ever see something like that...but I did. Unfortunately, I could never contact the kid about it - tried calling, phone was disconnected, etc. I'd love to buy that thing, but seeing it, and how it was built, it wouldn't be too hard to recreate it, even in a garage.
I've got a thread going over in one of the major military vehicle forums, I'll cross post whatever I find out.
Neat stuff!