- July 9, 2026
Michael Mangum, the owner of Mangum Motorsports, has now added a tank to his resume of vehicles he has repaired.
“This is a 1959 Daimler Scout,” Mangum said. “The last time it was operational was in the '70s.”
The Daimler Dingo Scout was a tank/car that was used for reconnaissance in World War II for its quickness and stealth design.
Mangum received the referral to repair the vehicle from a different shop owner who knew about Mangum Motorsports unique approach to vehicle restoration and repair.
“Not a lot of places are willing to or even capable of working on something like this,” Mangum said. “If somebody's gonna figure it out, it might as well be us.”
When the tank first came to Mangum Motorsports it wouldn’t start, had no brakes, and it was extremely heavy at 2.5 tons. However, according to Mangum none of those things was the toughest thing to figure out.
“The biggest challenge on this actually was the wiring,” Mangum said. “All of the wiring in this thing was completely deteriorated. We found that all of the wires are the same color. So we got a new wiring harness for this, and then we had to test from one end of the wire to the other end of the wire to figure out where they all went.
We finally have it now operational and running,” Mangum said. “I think we’re around 40 or 50 hours [work done] right now.”
Mangum was adamant that the there is still much to do.
“We ‘ve got to do lighting, we're going to put seats in,” Mangum said. “There is a gunner turret that goes on top of this that still needs to go on. We're gonna make this look like it is still used as a military vehicle when it's all done.”
Mangum got into the vehicle, drove it down the street, then turned around and came back.
“[The owner] is very happy. When we showed him that it was driving, he was super tickled, “ Mangum said.
Mangum Motorsports is located at 3240 Steel Rail Drive, Unit B, Bunnell, FL 32110, and services all of Palm Coast, Bunnell, and the surrounding areas.
“Every year we've grown more and more, and we are super, super grateful for our customers that we have here in Palm Coast.”
Interesting facts about the 1959 Daimler Scout Tank:
