Drake tank overpowered (you think!?)

I'd been roaming around in my Drake for awhile without so much of a sniff of a target, when I warp to a gate to see a BlackBird sat at 0km on my exit gate. Not wanting the BB to jump through the gate while I had aggression I decided to jump through the gate and reapproach from the other side. On landing in the next system I see 4 more members of the BB's corp in local a quick scan reveals 2 Rifters so nothing to worry about.
Spinning my Drake around I slowboat back to the gate, scanning as I go. Still 2 Rifters and now a Caracal on scanner. Caracal then warps to the gate and proceeds to lock me without firing, I ignore it waiting for it to fire first (as I'm flashing red no risk from sentries for him). As the Cara warps off the jump gate activates and my initial target jumps into system. I prime my weapons and wait in anticipation for him to decloak, the seconds drift past. Then there he is on overview 12km away, I quickly lock him and scram him, launching a full rack of Heavy missiles. Half his shields go in the first volley (which seemed a small loss for an EW boat) he locks me back and returns fire hardly damaging my tank. All the while I'm scanning local waiting for his corp mates to come to his aid, still see the 2 Rifters and Caracal on scanner but they are not coming to his aid. Now his shields have failed him and he is barely scratching my tank. His armour then doesn't take long for my heavies to eat through, structure even less. As his ship splinters and fractures apart I quickly lock his pod and send him off to a new clone. I slowly approach the wreck to see what gifts he has so kindly left behind.
Loot
2 Arbalest Heavy Launchers
2 basic Overdrives
and some named medium shield extenders with a booster
You may notice there was no ew equipment (gotta love new characters who have the strangest fittings)

I scoop my loot and head back to my home station to put the Arba's on the market (make a nice 34million iskies off them) and reprocess the rest. Whilst taking a time out in the station bar I realise I'd seen this corp before in a dead system around 3 jumps from my home system and decided to finish my drink and pay them a visit.

A few short hops and an hour later I drop into their system immediately after jump-in and on seeing 4 of the BB's corp mates in local I warp to my scan point, after being in the system for 3 minutes a Caracal, Thorax, Merlin and Hyperian appear on scan. I swiftly narrow them down, lo and behold they are at the exit jump gate. A little conversation ensues :-

Lexiconix Sol > greetings cheeb
Cheeb Aman > hey
Lexiconix Sol > nice drake
Lexiconix Sol > I have one too
Cheeb Aman > aye there nice ships
Lexiconix Sol > :-)
Cheeb Aman > nice little gang you have going
Lexiconix Sol > Well you did drop CyTac
Laeros > yep
Cheeb Aman > he should of ftted ecm
Cheeb Aman > nice arbalest launchers though

Now am contemplating if I can take this gang, with the hyperian being my main concern and decided to even things up a little by bringing my alt to the system and ganging him (as I have some decent leadership skills from my days in 0.0). Once this is done, I hit warp to 0 on the gate.
As I come out of warp I activate my tank, waiting for them to fire first. The Thorax locks and fires first, I quickly return the favour and 35 seconds later the Thorax pilot is in his pod. By the time the Thorax is down the Caracal and Hyperian have entered the fray. Switching targets to the Caracal, my shields having hardly moved. He proves to be a slightly tougher opponent and it takes me 2mins to finish him off. As I was stripping down the Caracal the Merlin warped to the battlefield I quickly sent my drones after him and he warped out at 25% armour. Now I can concentrate on the Battleship, his shields quickly evaporate which I expected but his tank is holding in armour we pound away at each other for another 4 mins with my shields holding at 80% to 85%, when the thorax pilot returns in a Mymrdon. With my cap now failing fast and being quite new to the drake, I decide to deagress and tank the damage till I can jump out.

A few stats from Quickfit
Started fight at 02:00:13 - Ended fight at 02:06:13
Acted for 06min 00sec

Damage received :
From Lexiconix Sol [FRRI](Merlin) : 724.8
From Shaeun [FRRI](Thorax) : 274.8
From Laeros [FRRI](Hyperion) : 15769.9
From Jin Lhing : 1152.8 [FRRI](Caracal)
Total : 17922.3

all in all a very fun fight and even I was surprised at the damage my drake tanked and props to the fairly new corp for having the balls to take on an older character.

Cleared for publication by: Ander