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Swedes buy huge Soviet tank for winter snow fun

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Swedes buy huge Soviet tank for winter snow fun

You’ve got 100,000 Swedish kronor to blow on something extravagant. Do you buy a low-end sports car? Not if you live in southern Norrland you don’t. You buy a tank.

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"If you want a new good snow mobile it's the same price," Jesper Lysell, 25, told The Local on Sunday. "A snow mobile, you can only drive it three times a year when the snow comes, it's just putting money in a big black hole." 
 
Jesper Lysell bought the tank, a Soviet MT-LB from the late 1960s, together with his twin brother Jerker at around Christmas time, and so far the two have just been using it around their father's farm. 
 
"So far we've just been driving over trees around the farm at  my father’s place, and driving around on the fields," Jesper said. "It’s quite dangerous because it’s open at the back, so if we have people in it, it can be quite dangerous when the trees fall down." 
 
The tank, which was built in Bulgaria, can travel at up to 60km/hr on roads and up to 30km/hr an hour over rough terrain. According to Jesper it drives even better in the present snowy conditions. 
 
"It’s even easier to drive when it’s snow. it just goes above the snow, it's no problem," he said.
 
Jesper Lysell said his father didn't think it was a particularly wise purchase, but hadn't tried to stop them. 
 
"My father just told us that we were just stupid, but he didn’t actually care, he thought we were just stupid idiots." 
 
He pointed out that  the brothers' family at least owned a sufficiently large expanse of field to drive their vehicle around in, unlike Jimmy Johansson from nearby Börlänge, who bought a tank last year "on impulse". 
 
"He just has it parked in his drive," scoffed Jesper. "Why buy a tank and just park it in your garage? That’s just stupid." 
 
Jerker Lysell, who took the silver medal at last year’s European Orienteering Championships is notorious for his crazy exploits outside of competitions: he was arrested in Italy last year after attempting to run naked around the local mountains. 
 
For anyone interested in following in Jerker's tank tracks, there's a Pbv401, the Swedish version of the MT-LB up for sale on Blocket, Sweden's version of eBay. 
 

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