Motor War Car
British armoured car
The Simms Motor War Car was the first armoured car ever built, designed by F. R. Simms .
A single prototype was ordered by the British Army in April 1899, a few months before the Second Boer War broke out. [1] It was built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim of Barrow on a special Coventry -built Daimler chassis [1] and had a German-built Daimler engine. [1]
Because of difficulties that arose, including a gearbox destroyed by a road accident, Vickers did not deliver the prototype until 1902, [1] and by then the South African wars were over. The vehicle was an improvement over Simms's earlier design, known as the 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 Horsepower 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, the vehicle had a length of 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. It was "capable of running on very rough surfaces". [1] It was designed to be operated by a crew of four men.
The 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 a few weeks before 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 Vehicles 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 .