Sportified Tanks

Sportified Tanks or Sporttanks for short are specialized vehicles intended (only) for matches affiliated with Panzerkraft. These tanks are either manufactured by Federation-sanctioned Factories, or overhauled by authorized Repair Shops, with the latter being a cheap option to increase the amount of their lineup in their team. Sportified Tanks are the successors of the Relay Tracks.

## Relay Tracks

They were used mainly at cross-country racing and to an extent endurance racing. Though tanks and tankettes were already in used for entertainment purposes such as the famous Renault FT-17 contested in the 1925 Monte Carlo and the 1926 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first tank that fitted to the Relay Tracks description is wasn't until 2 years later when the Carden Loyd tankette Mark VI became widespread thanks to its licensing in 1928.

The first Psuedo-Relay Track was observed during the 1925 Monte Carlo Racing when the aforementioned Renault FT-17 was fitted with an upgraded engine. Though it didn't finished the race without some drawbacks, the plausible of it meanwhile allowed its constant perseverance to racing events, such as the 1926 24 Hours of Le Mans in which the reliability of it staggered even the professional drivers during that time. And with the Carden Loyd becoming the standard Tankette design, they too were modified when the 1928 Monte Carlo came about.

When the Monte Carlo Track Rally was established as a way to separate the automobile to the autotracks, it also coined the term "Relay Tracks" to classify them as vehicles only intended for contesting their racing event, and as many countries begun to join the event, the term became widespread until it became synonymous with racing in general. Though when years followed, the modifications became wild and unorthodox to some, which slowly destroys the premise of calling them Autotracks in the first place, and so when the *Separation Movement* happened in the 1930s, all vehicles that were described as wild and unorthodox that weren't resembling their stock vehicles were now called as "Stock Tanks", and they were only contested to Track Unlimited Class Rally.

With the Europeans keeping the tradition of only boosting the performance of their vehicles through the upgrade of engines and tracks and adding fuel tanks, in the other parts of the world meanwhile where getting one is a hassle, they are required to be creative, and thus when the upgrades were added, they not only boost the performance of it but also put up an artistic appearance that further increases the competition for them to make better, wacky, and unique variants of their vehicles. The latter is where Overhauling became the normal practice to the poor while Manufacturing was an easy means to get a performing vehicle, but it costs an abysmal amount of money.

These two terms would remain for the majority of the 1930s till it got replaced by the Sportified Tank in the late 1940s. Though some parts of the world and certain organizations, the terms were still used.

## The Successor

Sportified Tanks are the superseded term of both the Relay Tracks and Stock Tracks starting in the late 1940s till the current time. The name came from the 1948 Olympics' Demonstration Sport event in front of the Royal Military Academy in which they used the *"Battle of the Sportified Tanks!"* as the motto of the fixture. The difference between its predecessor is that the Sporttank uses a special-made composite armor with a special characteristic that opened the possibility of subjugating Warfare through the introduction of this type of military vehicle.

Sportified Tanks enabled the events such as Shoot-and-Run Games and finally it reached its purpose as a means to do mock battles safely with non-lethal rounds; from both explosive and armor piercing shells. The tradition of Overhauling Sportified Tanks also became a common practice to everyone, from those wanting to change one's armament to completely changing the model from one tank to another through the use of Model Kits.

And while the Manufacturing continued to this day in the modern times, it faced a lot of restriction and so does the production of it is slow and often the Stock Tanks after Production are sold immediately, either by Industry's beneficiary or the highest bidder through authored bidding. While on the surface level, Manufacturing seems to be slow, on the underground network meanwhile, Sportified Tanks are produced in a much faster pace, and in order to negate the chances of breaching the safety standard, the International Panzerkraft Federation has enacted a couple of laws and activities to combat these illegal networks, but till to this day, these illegal manufacturers are still operable.

## Characteristics

Sportified Tanks are fitted with a special composite armor called the **C**omposite **E**nergy through **N**etting **Armor** or **CEN Armor**. It is basically an enlarged version of the popular and reliable *Conversion Energy Netting* made by Greek Scientist Petra Dimourgo. The armor is entirely made by different materials, hence its **Composite** in the name. Materials such as fused silica glass, carbon fiber, steel plates, and ceramics are used, with the latter being often used to effectively suppressed the concerning the use of HEAT shells. The way that the armor works is that when a solid material came contact to the armor, the accumulated energy, primarily its heat and kinetic energy from the said material is then converted to energy, and that energy is transmitted real time to the CEN Armor's motherboard, the ***Helios Software***.

Sportified Tanks compared to their counterparts and predecessors alike can easily identified through how they perform on the field. Sportified Tanks are walking fortresses during Panzerkraft Matches. They are faster, stronger, and offers good protection against the harshest of environments; from the scourging heat on a desert to the chilliest cold on a sastrugi, from the tallest peaks of mountains, to the bottom pits of rivers. Though as good protection they have, they aren't indestructible and aren't practical to be used against to most Cold War-era to every Modern Tanks in the 21st Century.

Their shells are also Federation-sanctioned, meaning to say that they don't use the original ammunition, but rather a replica with similar performance to its counterpart albeit they made them "non-lethal" to compliment to the design of the tanks. Additional accessories can also be applied such as applique-armor, logs, a turret basket, and even a speaker.

In guidance to the Federation's strict restriction to their deployment, all tanks must be consulted by a Federation Employee regularly and during procedures before the start of any Panzerkraft events.

### Manufacturing

Industry and Manufacturers of Sportified Tanks must endured a long and tedious process of authorizing their factories to allow the creation of these special tanks. It acts as a safety measure for the Federation since it concerns about the safety of the users, especially to the teenagers as they are the majority when it comes at crewing these vehicles. Apart from the tedious process of getting the permission, when it comes at manufacturing these vehicles, all industry must follow the same standardized process in building them, from the important dimensions of the vehicle to the trivial amount of rivets on it. And since the standardized process was enacted by the Federation as mandatory to all manufacturers, this enabled the easy conversion of tanks through the usage of Modification Model Kits, a special prefabricated kit that permits conversion from one vehicle to another.

Though as many Industries were sanctioned by the Federation, the demand for Sportified Tanks are still high due to the implementation of the *Sports And Welfare Protocol*, a multilateral treaty in which states, organizations, and companies signed whereby it agreed to the prohibition of using all Recrelympic-made equipment in conflicts and limits the conversion of these weaponry to lethal ones. Therefore there's a limit to each industry's allotment on the amount of vehicles they can produce in a month.

### Overhauling

When compared to the two options of creating Sportified Tanks, the Overhauling side is cheaper yet riskier to both the users and mechanics than Manufacturing. Though both process involves the authorization from the Federation, the process of becoming a Panzekraft-approved workshop is less tedious than an Industry sanctioned in producing these vehicles. Once the workshop has been authorized by the Federation, this workshop can allow its service to convert a tank to a new model or a different tank entirely, provided if they have the sufficient materials and money for it. Workshops can also send their mechanics to other places and act as temporary employees in that area on behalf of the mechanic's workshop.

Workshops can also sell Modification Model Kits to Tank users, this special item can only be seen to them and to Warshots. And if bought successfully by someone, they can now have the ability to change one's tank model to an another model if followed the instructions on the kit. Workshops/Warshots such as the Tamiya Heavy Subsidiarity has easy to understand manuals behind the kit's box that even *a kid can change a tank's model* without being faulty as final product.

And like the Manufactured vehicles, Overhauled vehicles are mandated to be consulted by a Federation Agent regularly or during the preparation stage in Panzerkraft matches.