The world's best variety of historic mobile tanks, featuring The Tank Museums own unique collection of fighting vehicles, will be held over seven high-octane hours in the Museum arena.

Tank Museum Curator David Willey said; "TANKFEST is a special occasion as it is the only time that the public can see many of our less common vehicles running. Indeed, this year we have some vehicles that have never run or been seen before at TANKFEST.

"Each of our displays are being given a special campaign theme - so visitors can get a real idea and comparison of the tanks that have faced each other in conflict since the African campaign in World War Two."

The Tank Museums major biennial event was last held on a beautiful May weekend in 2004, and saw almost 5,000 visitors ring the arena to see the worlds most important collection of historic tanks brought back to life.

Amongst these was the awesome World War Two German Tiger 1 tank. The world's only running example was painstakingly restored and ran for the first time in almost 60 years to delight expectant crowds.

This year TANKFEST promises to offer both enthusiast and casual visitor something special, and is set to include;

• Key vehicles from the history of armoured warfare,
• Every British Main Battle Tank from 1944 to the present day.
• A superb collection of American, Russian and British vehicles.
• A unique group of mobile German fighting vehicles and artillery, including vehicles loaned by private collectors.
• Realistic WWII encampments displaying the wartime equipment, clothing and living conditions of British, American and German soldiers.
• A major WWII combat re-enactment, featuring Allied infantry and Armour assaulting German positions.
• Displays focussing on some of the major campaigns in the history of armoured warfare, featuring: North Africa 1942, Normandy 1944, Korean War, The Cold War and Desert Storm.
• Traders stalls and sideshows.

The Royal Armoured Corps will also be in attendance with examples of the latest kit employed by the British Army on operations.

The Museum, which contains the world's finest collection of armoured fighting vehicles ranging from the first tank ever built, will also be fully accessible, bringing the total number of vehicles on display to around 400.

TANKFEST begins at 10am on Sunday 25th June 2006.

For more information, (including traders and stall holders information) email tankfest06@tankmuseum.org or call 01929 405096.

Whilst Tiger 131 was run at Tankfest 2004, there were still significant problems regarding the engine that we have continued to investigate.

When it was introduced in 1942, The Tiger had a modern but notoriously unreliable engine. Over 60 years on, natural wear and ageing has exacerbated the original issues and now, of course, spare parts are increasingly difficult to come by.

The Tank Museum is looking at the possibility of running Tiger 131 at Tankfest 2006. The engine has been removed and is currently undergoing detailed assessment.

We hope that Tiger 131 will be running on June 25th, however we cannot guarantee that the original problems will have been solved or that the necessary work will have been completed in time.

In many respects, this is true for any one of the vehicles which we intend to run at Tankfest; mechanical reliability of old tanks and their complex engines can never be guaranteed.

Either way, Tiger 131 will be on display outside of the Museum, and Tankfest will as ever be an awesome experience with plenty of other highlights - including several vehicles never run or seen before at TANKFEST, and a full WWII battle re-enactment.