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Many visitors to the north Georgia mountains thirst for an escape of Atlanta; the traffic, work, the noise and the hectic lifestyle. They're looking for relaxation. Others are just looking to drive a tank.
"This is Tank Town USA, it's America's home for tank driving and car crushing," Tank Town USA owner Todd Liebross told wsbtv.com's Nelson Hicks.
That's right, the peaceful serene north Georgia mountains are now home to a new adventure.
Liebross imported the idea behind Tank Town USA from Europe where similar experiences are offered. Three years in the making, Tank Town USA just opened. The company's most popular experience puts visitors in the drivers seat of a FV 432, a 31,000-pound British fighting vehicle.
"It's incredible," exclaimed visitor Jay Smith. "It's really easy to drive. To drive a tank is not that hard actually it turns out. They move pretty fast. They give you a lot of feedback through your seat and it's a lot of fun."
"(Driving a tank is) way better than driving a car," visitor Corrin Drakulich said. "I think you're only going about 10 miles per hour but you feel like you're going 50 and you're just busting through dirt and going over hills and going down hills."
Smith and Grakulich joined their co-workers, a group of patent lawyers, on a recent corporate outing to Tank Town USA. As with all guests, as one person drove the tank, another had the option of sitting atop it to experience the ride.
"Some people say the ride is more fun than the drive because you really get, it's so much higher, you're really sitting up there," Liebross said. "So, every angle, every hill climb, you really feel it."
Kids as young as 7 can ride as a passenger. Drivers have to be 15 or older.
Liebross offers excavator and bulldozer experiences, too. Each costs $50 as does the tank-driving experience. And for the truly adventurous, there's one more option -- car crushing.
"You've got to walk up to it real slow, otherwise it will start pushing forward a little bit," visitor Johnathan Brighd said. "I don't really know what was going to happen. I thought everything was going to lurch forward, but you're really just kind of impervious to it, but it was pretty cool, especially to see what was left at the end of it."
North Georgia will never be the same.
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