Buicks have a reputation for being built like tanks. This one especially – because, as you can see, it’s an actual tank.
Like most other manufacturers, Buick was tasked during World War II to assist with the war effort, building (among other machinery) tanks like this. A tank destroyer, technically, because it was built not to take on fixed targets, but to destroy other tanks.
Tank destroyers were lighter in weight and had more power to enable them to move faster. So the air-cooled Continental R-975 nine-cylinder produced 350 horsepower (at a time when Jeeps made all of 60 hp), and with “only” 20 tons to move, it could reach 55 miles per hour – faster than most tanks.
It was fitted with a 76-millimeter cannon and a Browning M2 .50-caliber machine gun, but only 12-mm-thick armor in most places that could barely protect its crew of five. Rounds fired from that turret gun, though, could penetrate armor up to 100 mm thick.
Buick made over 2,500 of these M18 “Hellcats” in 1943 and ’44 for deployment in the European theater. This one was deployed with the US Army’s 704th Tank Destroyer Battalion, and is coming up for sale to the highest bidder in Auburn Spring the weekend of May 11, when it’s estimated to sell for between $275,000 and $350,000. Check it out in the gallery of images below captured by Teddy Pieper for Auctions America.
Photo Gallery
