I don’t care who you are— you want to see a tank smash a car. This is a universal truth.

This weekend you can watch an M60 Battle Tank roll over a standard 4-door Toyota Echo, turning the squashed vehicle into a truly “compact” car.

The tank-car-crushing is part of the annual Tankfest Northwest event held at the world class Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum this Saturday.

And I do mean world class.

On Saturday another tank, new to the FHCAM collection, will be revealed at Tankfest: a Panzer IV from WWII. It was built in 1944 and served in Czechoslovakia, Syria, and Israel before ending up in the shed of a millionaire collector in the Bay Area.

In fact, you *kind of* have to be a millionaire to collect vintage army vehicles. The FHCAM is Paul Allen’s personal collection, though the museum operates as a nonprofit.

All of the machines here have interesting stories, from the tiny Japanese jungle tank to the Kettenkraftrad, an impractically heavy WW2-era German motorcycle/tank hybrid that found post-war use as farming tractors for Eastern Europeans. You can buy one here.

The planes, tanks, and automobiles are meticulously restored by a dedicated group of volunteers.

The volunteers scour military deadstock for B-52 bomb bay wiring. They lovingly paint decals onto balsa-wood fuselages. They stock the museum’s UH-B1 Huey helicopter with ammo-less AR-71 assault rifles. All accessories down to the hammers and shovels strapped to a Sherman tank are vintage.

The degree to which the vehicles at FHCAM are perfect is a real trip, a time travelling experience.

There is more to see at the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum than can be easily summarized. While I was there I saw replicas of the first atomic bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy. I saw an actual D-Day flag. I saw an amputation kit from the American Civil War (think hacksaw). And I saw a “decoy bomb squirrel” from Germany (long story to explain in context, but it’s pretty much what it sounds like).

Your best bet is to go check out the giant museum for yourself. They’re expanding later this year by adding on a third hangar of vintage goodies. There’s a reason this place appears on travel brochures. People come from all around the world just to see it.

Tank your lucky stars it’s in Everett.

TANKFEST NW EVENT

Event is free for military members, veterans, and children under five

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

FLYING HERITAGE & COMBAT ARMOR MUSEUM

3407 109th St SW
Everett, WA 98204

(877) 342-3404

Open 7 days a week 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.