The Worlds First Motorized Armored Vehicle — The Simms Motorscout, 1898.The first motorized co

The Worlds First Motorized Armored Vehicle — The Simms Motorscout, 1898.The first motorized combat vehicle in history, the Simms Motorscout was certainly something to gawk at.  Designed and built by the British inventor R. F. Simms in 1898, the Motorscout was De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with with a mounted Maxim machine gun.  A small mantlet was attached to the machine gun to provide the driver with protection from small arms fire.  Locomotion was provided by a 1.5 horsepower gasoline engine with enough fuel to travel 120 miles.  1,000 rounds of ammunition was also provided for the machine gun.An interesting design to say the least, it unfortunately had some draw backs.  The puny 1.5 horsepower engine provided little power and only marginal speed.  More importantly, despite the gun mantlet at the front, the driver was terribly exposed to gunfire.  As a result few were produced and none saw combat.  Simms would later improve upon the concept by building and designing a full sized armored car. -- source link

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