Tornado Intercept Vehicle

The Tornado Intercept Vehicle, TIV short ( German: Tornado Intercept Vehicle ) is a converted motor vehicle, which is used to storm chase.

TIV

The TIV is a converted 1997 Ford F -450 truck. The vehicle was designed and built by IMAX filmmaker Sean Casey. The heavily armored car can travel in EF0 - EF3 tornadoes to make IMAX film footage and scientific measurements. Work on the TIV began in 2003 and lasted about eight months. The costs amounted to approximately $ 81,000. With a full tank (227 liters ), the TIV 800 km drive.

The vehicle can also be seen in the Discovery Channel & DMAX series "Mad About Tornadoes ". The TIV was succeeded in 2008 by TIV 2. However, this had a lot of glitches in the initial phase, so that the TIV was reinstated.

TIV 2

Sean Casey built this car as the successor of TIV. He constructed a better -propelled, protected teres vehicle. The vehicle has a specially reinforced frame and is very much more stable in itself. It is also much lighter ( about 1.2 tons). Because of this and because the new TIV has a larger fuel tank, the range is greater. He can now put back with a full tank filled about 1,200 km.

Like the first TIV, has the TIV 2 via a ball bearing, 360 ° rotatable camera tripod. This is also located in the tower in the middle of the car. TIV 2 also has 50 percent window area, which facilitates the recording IMAX. At the beginning there were many technical difficulties with the TIV 2 (eg broken axle or broken suspension ). The engine of the TIV 2 makes over 625 hp ( 466 kW).

Trivia

Another stormchasing team has a similar armored vehicle called Dominator. This is a converted Chevrolet Tahoe.