"Largest Private Collection of Military Vehicles in the World" Topic

I recently had the privilege of visiting the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation. Located in Portola Valley, CA this is the largest private collection of military vehicles in the world. The collection was put together by Jacques Littlefield and was featured in the Panther episode of the Military Channel series Tank Overhaul. I wrote an article about my trip and posted some great photos. Take a look.
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Thanks for posting. I didn't realize Mr. Littlefield had passed away. I have seen him many times on the Military Channel's Tank Overhaul. It just reminds you that there is so much to do and too little time in which to do it. Jürgen

Wow, I may have to see how close that is to where we are going in California this year! Perhaps a side trip is in order! Indeed it is close – we will be going to San Francisco this summer in August! I will have to see if I can squeeze this into our trip!

Great that you can get right up to the vehicles and touch them. Were you are to go inside any of them?

Looks like an awesome trip!

thanks for the info. Sad to see that the family is not honoring his life's work. Goes to show, if you are well to do, you should make an ironclad will.

I was gonna guess 'Bongolesia'…several of the former soviet states or Confederate Air Force….boy was I off!

NOT only the largest but the best restored of any vehicles, ever restored. Even going to the point of reproducing conduit to exact specifications for old vehicles etc. He was anal retentive in the level of quality he demanded. He expected it to be a factory restore or better than factory restore. However, not all the vehicles he has were restored to that level, as there were shifting priorities but the "finished" ones fall into this category. Quite a collection indeed, his death and leadership over that collection will most likely cause it to go down in quality if it does expand and all again.

I saw that episode of Tank Overhaul, it was excellent. Would love to see this collection in the flesh. I didn't know he had passed away.

Here's some more photos of the amazing collection:

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Thanks for the post. I had not yet seen a photo of the completed Panther. In these links are some photos of it "in the works."

Thank you for the great feedback, guys. To answer your question Schogun, no we were not able to get inside any of them. I suppose our tour group was too large to allow such things under the careful watch of just one tour guide as he was also trying to give us some great information. Maybe in the future we can set up a special tour.

One important note: I had stated in the article that the family had frozen funding for the foundation and that the collection was in a holding pattern. After reviewing the article, I was told that was not specifically true. I did not get details, but I needed to clarify the error and say that I removed that part from the article.

Wow, Thunder. Those were some great photos you have there. Obviously you got the tour back when Jacques was running the show and the tours were more informal. I would love to have been able to get inside some of these great vehicles.

On another note, I am back from vacation (back to crummy, hot Texas weather) and we should get the first of the reference pages up soon. Stay posted…

Wow, Thunder. Those were some great photos you have there.

Thunder might not be able to answer …

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We wound up using him to lubricate the tracks for the StuG.

Obviously you got the tour back when Jacques was running the show and the tours were more informal.

Yes, we went when Jacques was still going strong. Our group included several notable authors who used the Littlefield collection for portions of their research.

Also, the "third musketeer" who joined Thunder and I on our side exporations -- a fellow I'll refer to as CGE, is a heavy industrial welder who assisted in some portions of the Panther restoration.

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Mk 1, Thunder and CGE doing the "spahwagon Shuffle".

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)