I got back super-super-late from the Ford Performance event last night, driving back from Charlotte at 2 am because in many fundamental and important ways, I’m a dummy. But while I was there I saw a fantastic off-road vehicle I wasn’t previously familiar with, and it had pretty much nothing to do with Ford Performance, though I suppose there are some historical Ford tie-ins. The vehicle was encased in glass, like it lived in a colossal terrarium, and it’s big strange face drew my attention like it hooked it on a winch. Let’s talk about this thing.
This thing, is technically known as the M561, but is better known as the Gama Goat. The name comes from the man who designed the powered, articulated joint this machine uses, Roger Gamaunt, and the “goat” part is because this thing climbs over terrain like a, you know, goat. The reason there was one preserved under glass at the facility Ford was holding their big event was because that facility was once known as Camp North End, and it started life as a Ford factory, where it was used to build Models T and A (get your mind out of the gutter) up until the 1930s.
Then it was used for Army warehouses, then in the 1950s Douglas Aircraft used some of those warehouses to build Hercules and Ajax guided missiles, and then in 1969 Consolidated Diesel Corp. (CONDEC) built a factory there to build these Gama Goats for the war in Vietnam. So that’s why one is preserved there, among all the restaurants and event spaces and clubs or whatever – they used to build them right there.