Simms War Car at the Crystal Palace London April 1902

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 The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

in April 1899, a few months before the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the So ...

broke out. It was built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim of Barrow on a special

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-built Daimler chassis and had a German-built Daimler engine. Because of difficulties that arose, including a gearbox destroyed by a road accident, Vickers did not deliver the prototype until 1902, 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 16

Horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...

Cannstatt Daimler engine, giving it a maximum speed of around 9 miles per hour (14.5 km/h). The armament, consisting of two

Maxim gun The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian ...

s, was carried in two turrets with 360° traverse. Some sources also mention a single QF 1 pounder pom-pom. Fully equipped, the vehicle had a length of overall, with a beam of , a ram at each end, two turrets, and two guns. It was "capable of running on very rough surfaces". It was designed to be operated by a crew of four men. The Simms Motor War Car was presented at the

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

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, in April 1902. Another armoured car of the period was the French

Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902 The Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902 was a French armoured car (French: ''Automitrailleuse blindée'') developed in 1902 by the company Charron, Girardot et Voigt. It was equipped with a Hotchkiss machine gun, and with 7 mm armour for the gu ...

, presented a few weeks before at the ''Salon de l'Automobile et du cycle'' in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, on 8 March 1902.

Notes

References

* {{cite book, last = Crow, first = Duncan, title = AFV's of World War One, year = 1970, isbn = 978-1-899695-02-7

External links

"Armoured cars (1896-1913)"

Armoured cars of the United Kingdom Military vehicles introduced in the 1900s