These Vehicles Are Tons of Fun, and Good for Thwarting Road Rage

PORT LAVACA, Texas�Weapons buffs may stock semiautomatics in the gun safe. But nothing makes a statement like having an Army tank in the garage.

Scattered around the country are members of a small fraternity of guys who own tanks. They are hyper-avid history buffs or hyper-edgy investors or just wealthy men who can now afford hyper-sized versions of the toys they played with when they were boys. Tank brokers�yes, there is such a thing�estimate there are several hundred to 1,000 private tank owners in the U.S.

For History Buffs, These Vehicles Are Tons of Fun

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Jim Knerr

Mr. Rubino sits in a M4A1E8 Sherman tank in Belvidere, N.J

"There's always a little boy in the man," says Barbara Bauer, whose husband, Bill Bauer, owns a pristine, 20-ton, World War II Chaffee tank in Port Lavaca.