The Ford Mk V Armoured Car was a light
armored car, built in Ireland by Thompson & Son of Hanover Works,
County Carlow
County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...
.
Specifications
The Ford Mk V was built with .5 inch mild steel plate, onto a Ford chassis of 122 inches.
Fitted with an 85 horsepower petrol Ford V8 3,621 cc engine,
the Mark V was much smaller, cheaper to build and had better performance than its predecessor the
GSR Ford Mk IV Armoured Car.
When empty of all unessential equipment, the Mark V weighed just over five tons, and had a max speed of 45 km per hour (28 mph) and a range of 150 km (93 miles).
After the prototype was built, inspected and passed, the remaining 13 Ford Mk Vs were built and sold by 1954.
Fourteen were built in total with
Peerless armoured car
During the First World War, sixteen American Peerless trucks were modified by the British to serve as armoured cars. These were relatively primitive designs with open backs, armed with a Pom-pom gun and a machine gun, and were delivered to the Br ...
turrets and Hotchkiss .303 machine guns fitted. The vehicles were designed by Maj. J. V. Lawless and Comdt. A. W. Mayne, using ideas taken from the
Rolls-Royce Armoured Car
The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car was a British Armored car (military), armoured car developed in 1914 and used during the World War I, First World War, Irish Civil War, the inter-war period in Imperial Air Control in Transjordan, Palestine and Mesopot ...
as well as from the
Leyland Armoured Car
Leyland Armoured Car refers to four armoured cars, built between 1934 and 1940, which were used by the Irish Army. The first Leyland Armoured Car was built in 1934, and three more were built by 1940. The Leylands served with the Irish Army until ...
.
Variants
A later variant, the Ford Mk VI Armoured Car, was also built by the Thompson company in Carlow.
28 of the Ford Mk VI versions were built, with (unlike the Ford Mk Vs which had Peerless turrets) new turrets, modeled on a
Landsverk
:''This is about the origin of the family name Landsverk. For the Swedish heavy industry manufacturer, see AB Landsverk.''
Landsverk is the name of two forest farms located in the village of Lisleherad, in the municipality of Notodden, Norway
...
design, built by the Thompson company themselves
References
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Armoured cars of Ireland
Ford vehicles