I had occasion to drive one of these lil sporty APCs in Germany when I was there in 1971 and TDY with C 3-36 mechanized infantry company. Several of us Agency guys were sent out to line units in USAE to do a study of their communications security procedures. I was immediately promoted to be the CO's driver so he could "direct" my thoughts about the way the company and battalion handled the way they passed information over their radios, and voice and teletype... lol. ( You younguns stfu! That's all we had back then !)
I was only supposed to be there for a maximum of 60 days. However, since all our military operates as a well oiled sewing machine, it went way over 90. During that time I had a blast, shooting the M2s and the electric 20mm (on the 114) and even one practice round from a Tow that was mounted on an M113. The Tow, at that time, was brand spanking new and was going to replace all the recoiless rifles the Army and Marines had. They mainly consisted of the shoulder fired 90mm and the 106 mounted recoiless guns.
Back to the 114. It was light weight and had a Chevy 283 with a very stout 4 speed automatic when fresh from the crate. As any of you bowtie guys know, there are tons of things you can do to those to make them scream. It was plain and obvious that a couple of guys in the 3-36 motorpool did too. They took the 283 out and put in a 327, with a cam, solid lifters and a holly dual pumper and headers complete with the foil backed asbestos wrap so that the drivers legs wouldn't blister... lol. The original engine, with very low miles, went into a Sgt's Biscayne, with an orange over OD rattle can upgrade. The 327 would shake the ground when fired up and I have no idea what the top speed was increased to, having never driven a stock one. I do know that it would eat the rubber pads off the tracks if you asked it to, and would make any drifter's competition look like a soap box derby in comparison. The CO loved the thing and on company outings, you know, the type where you slept in a sleeping bag in the rain or snow and ate Cs and drank coffee prepared in a 5 gallon pot? We'd take it out for runs to the range to burn off some 20mm through its electric cannon. We always took, or made the long way there and back. I recently saw a video, that I will post here, that stated that the M114 was much slower than the M113s that it was designed to support in a recon role. That, in this case anyway, was a complete lie. This 114 was like a Ferrari compared to a VW when compared to a diesel powered M113. Ok, so it was aluminum, and it had a big tank full of gas behind its "armor" and virtually no mine or IED protection and couldn't cross a ditch that was twice as short as it was...so freakin what! Avoid ditches by jumping them! Drive thru the bigger ones and knock over 10 inch trees, but be selective, a big enough tree would stop you. Not because you couldn't knock it down too, but the ground clearance could cause you to get hung up. I'm posting a video of one that a swat team has restored. You'll get an idea of its size by looking at the driver's head sticking out of it. I'll post another one so that you can hear a stock 283 and imagine what that 327 sounded like.
I was only supposed to be there for a maximum of 60 days. However, since all our military operates as a well oiled sewing machine, it went way over 90. During that time I had a blast, shooting the M2s and the electric 20mm (on the 114) and even one practice round from a Tow that was mounted on an M113. The Tow, at that time, was brand spanking new and was going to replace all the recoiless rifles the Army and Marines had. They mainly consisted of the shoulder fired 90mm and the 106 mounted recoiless guns.
Back to the 114. It was light weight and had a Chevy 283 with a very stout 4 speed automatic when fresh from the crate. As any of you bowtie guys know, there are tons of things you can do to those to make them scream. It was plain and obvious that a couple of guys in the 3-36 motorpool did too. They took the 283 out and put in a 327, with a cam, solid lifters and a holly dual pumper and headers complete with the foil backed asbestos wrap so that the drivers legs wouldn't blister... lol. The original engine, with very low miles, went into a Sgt's Biscayne, with an orange over OD rattle can upgrade. The 327 would shake the ground when fired up and I have no idea what the top speed was increased to, having never driven a stock one. I do know that it would eat the rubber pads off the tracks if you asked it to, and would make any drifter's competition look like a soap box derby in comparison. The CO loved the thing and on company outings, you know, the type where you slept in a sleeping bag in the rain or snow and ate Cs and drank coffee prepared in a 5 gallon pot? We'd take it out for runs to the range to burn off some 20mm through its electric cannon. We always took, or made the long way there and back. I recently saw a video, that I will post here, that stated that the M114 was much slower than the M113s that it was designed to support in a recon role. That, in this case anyway, was a complete lie. This 114 was like a Ferrari compared to a VW when compared to a diesel powered M113. Ok, so it was aluminum, and it had a big tank full of gas behind its "armor" and virtually no mine or IED protection and couldn't cross a ditch that was twice as short as it was...so freakin what! Avoid ditches by jumping them! Drive thru the bigger ones and knock over 10 inch trees, but be selective, a big enough tree would stop you. Not because you couldn't knock it down too, but the ground clearance could cause you to get hung up. I'm posting a video of one that a swat team has restored. You'll get an idea of its size by looking at the driver's head sticking out of it. I'll post another one so that you can hear a stock 283 and imagine what that 327 sounded like.
