The Tornado Intercept Vehicle 1 (TIV 1) is a heavily modified 1997 Ford F-Series F-Super Duty cab & chassis truck used as a storm chasing platform and built by Sean Casey.

[1] This heavily armored vehicle can drive into a weak to relatively strong tornado (EF0 to EF3)[citation needed] to film it and take measurements.

[2] The TIV weighs approximately 14,000 lb (6,400 kg) fully loaded[3] and is powered by a 7.3 litre Ford Powerstroke turbocharged diesel engine manufactured by Navistar-International, otherwise known as the Navistar T444E.

[citation needed] Casey and his team developed and built the second Tornado Intercept Vehicle, dubbed TIV 2, to be featured in their next IMAX movie and the Storm Chasers series.

[12] Work began in September 2007 by forty welding students at the Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton, Oklahoma and was completed in time for the 2008 tornado chase season.

[citation needed] It is powered by a 6.7-liter Cummins turbocharged diesel engine, modified with propane and water injection to produce 625 horsepower (466 kW).

[citation needed] TIV 2 debuted on the second season of Storm Chasers, which began airing on the Discovery Channel in October 2008.

Other modifications included additional doors that provided every seat position with an exit (wind skirts up or down), and a redesigned IMAX turret with 50% more windows.

When tested again at 250 mph (400 km/h) (equivalent to an EF5 tornado), the TIV 2 suffered no ill effects other than the anchoring spikes being slightly bent; the Dominator ended up being blown approximately 50 feet (15 m), although it remained upright.

The vehicle was struck by large debris from a nearby farm and suffered damage to the roof-mounted anemometer and at least two breaches of the crew compartment when the roof hatch and one of the doors were blown open.

[19] The TIV 2 was fully restored and back on the road again in the 2021 storm season, where it made multiple close intercepts on June 10 in western North Dakota.

[citation needed] On March 16, 2023, 10 days after the announcement of the new vehicle, Sean published another post, now showing the hydraulic spikes that were installed.

[21] Although primarily designed to shoot film from near or within tornadoes, the TIVs have at times been outfitted with meteorological instrumentation atop masts to complement the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar trucks of the Center for Severe Weather Research run by atmospheric scientist and inventor Joshua Wurman.