Motor War Car
Simms' Motor War Car was the first armoured car ever built.
It was designed by F.R. Simms and a single prototype was ordered in April 1899[1] It was built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim of Barrow on a special Coventry-built Daimler chassis[1] with a German-built Daimler motor.[1]
Because of difficulties, including a gearbox destroyed by a road accident, that arose during completion the prototype was not finished by Vickers until 1902[1] when the Boer War was over. The vehicle was an improvement over Simms' earlier design known as Motor Scout which was the first armed (but not armoured) vehicle powered by a petrol engine.
The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3.3-litre[1] 16 hp Cannstatt Daimler engine giving it a maximum speed of around 9 miles per hour (14.5 km/h). The armament, consisting of two Maxim guns, was carried in two turrets with 360° traverse. Some sources also mention a single QF 1 pounder pom-pom.[2][3]
Fully equipped it was 28 feet (8.5 m) overall with a beam of 8 feet (2.4 m), a ram at each end, two turrets and two guns and "capable of running on very rough surfaces".[1]
It had a crew of four. Simms' Motor War Car was presented at the Crystal Palace, London, in April 1902.[4]
Another armoured car of the period was the French Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902, presented at the Salon de l'Automobile et du cycle in Brussels, on 8 March 1902.[5]
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu Baron Montagu of Beaulieu; Lord Montagu; David Burgess Wise (1995). Daimler Century: The Full History of Britain's Oldest Car Maker. Haynes Publications. ISBN 978-1-85260-494-3.
- ↑ Macksey, Kenneth (1980). The Guinness Book of Tank Facts and Feats. Guinness Superlatives Limited. p. 256. ISBN 0-85112-204-3.
- ↑ Tucker, Spencer (1999). The European Powers in the First World War. Routledge. p. 816. ISBN 0-8153-3351-X.
- ↑ Armoured Fighting Vehicules of the World, Duncan, p.3
- ↑ Gougaud, Alain (1987). L'aube de la gloire: les autos mitrailleuses et les chars français pendant la Grande Guerre, histoire technique et militaire, arme blindée, cavalerie, chars, Musée des blindés. p. 11. ISBN 978-2-904255-02-1.
References
- Crow, Duncan (1970). AFV's of World War One. ISBN 978-1-899695-02-7.