Leopard WHIF

[dy031101]

Although I don't speak German, there are some interesting picture of prototypes and concept for Leopard 1, including the one from Borgward, here.

The Borgward design seems to suggest steering roadwheels...... convertible drive?

[GTX]

Although I don't speak German, there are some interesting picture of prototypes and concept for Leopard 1, including the one from Borgward, here.

The Borgward design seems to suggest steering roadwheels...... convertible drive?

Yes it was convertible drive. The proposal shown had four of the five dual road wheels with bullet proof tyres and driven whilst three were steerable.  When tracks (which were stowed on the fenders) were used, they were driven by the drive sprockets as well as by the driven road wheels.  The road wheels had hydrodynamic suspension with a large spring extension making it possible to reach high speeds (120km/h on wheels, 80km/h on tracks) when travelling cross-country.  The driver could also adjust the ground clearance to such an extent that the hull floor touched the ground.   Power was to come from four liquid cooled six-cylinder boxer diesel engines in the hull nose with a total output of 1500HP. Crew was to be three.  Armament was a 105mm main gun + 20mm secondary

The proposal from Carl F. W. Borgwald, was extremely advanced and in fact was seen as requiring too much time to develop  - hence why it didn't get an order. 

Regards,

Greg