Well, I’ve been harping about my experience on the prototype test of the XM1 and my work building/testing the tanks at the Lima Army Tank Plant for two decades, so I thought I would share a few of my many pictures with the gang.
A few of you sharp guys out there will notice the differences from the prototypes to todays M1A2’s right away…
This is PV #5, that’s me in the cupola. We originally had 14 prototypes, this was taken in 1978 at Ft. Knox
Again PV 5, me driving and Scotty Anderson up top, this was for the ABC TV 20/20 special aired in 1980, they were looking for “airborne shots”!
This was taken at LATP Lima, Ohio, I’m out of the Army and working for Chrysler Defense (later GD) here giving demo rides to the German Leopard development team when hey came for a visit:
This is the first operational battalion 2/64 at FT. Hood in late 1981 ready for thier first full scale field exersize, we went along to provide tech support:
Here we are haulin ****** across Ft. Hood, knowing we now had a REAL main battle tank!
Hope you guys enjoy-oh yeah almost forgot, here’s my old M60A2 while I was in Germany:
The XM1 was never kitted to my knowledge. Tamiya did kit the initial M1 which we started production deliveries with in 1980, but believe me, that was a much different tank than the XM1, note the blow off vent in the PV5 pic, the vent is DOWN at the rear bustle, right over the driver hatch with the gun in travel lock. Also note the prototype commanders weapon station vs. the production mount. Not to mention, these prototypes were much faster than production tanks.
If you ever look at the original Chrysler entry into the M1 competition, you’ll see it looks much different.
I’m looking forward to checking out the losing GM entry: The thing just showed up at the Littlefields collection in CA in a pretty sorry state. I’ve never seen it before.
I’ve got a few shots of the XM1 at the Patton Museum that I took this past summer at Ft. Knox. I’d love to backdate the Tamiya M1 kit just for giggles. While the XM-1 was cool, I was much more interested in the MBT-70 they had on base… now THAT was a cool tank!
Going back even further, here’s the original Chrysler XM1 that was entered into competition. Note the entirely different shape of the front turret, and the lower doghouse. Family resemblance is obvious though, particularly the hull.
Cool pic of the Sterling demonstrator, it was snapped at Aberdeen in 1976. You are correct in that this was a Chrysler Defense proposal. You will note that the front of the hull and the turret glacis’ are totally undersized for what would eventually become the Special Armor packages that were still in the design/development stage at this time. The purpose of this vehicle was to demonstrate the viability of the Avco/Lycoming turbine powerplant, against the GM HIMAG demonstrator with a 1500 HP diesel. These trials were held at Aberdeen. Later, when our British friends let us copy thier Chobham armor, the turret and hull were redesigned to maximize the ballistic efficiency of the armor package. The special armor was such a secret project at the time, that the Chrysler and GM engineering groups were allowed to submit unsuitable turret designs, rather than compromise the security of the armor program.
Another ‘atta boy’ for finding the HIMAG pic Nick! You can see that certain design features were carried over from the GM turret into the production turret. You will notice that there is no “doghouse” above the gunners station on the turret roof. This is because, (although not visible in this pic) the HIMAG had all the gunners primary sight components housed in an armored box on the side of the turret. Inside, when seated in the gunners seat, there was nothing in front of the gunner except the sight extensions! The Army definitely did not like this concept. Also, the GM turret pioneered the blast doors and segregated ammo storage that we value as a main survivability feature on todays M1.
Not too many people realize just how close GM came to winning the contract. The HIMAG was an excellent tank, with performance that was almost equal to the XM1. The key selling points for the Army were that the turbine required much less cost in the form of logistics (parts), the turbine had superior low end torque, and the multi fuel capability was seen as very valuable at the time. Basically, the AGT 1500 can burn anything combustible that is a liquid. The turbine also exhibited hands down superiority in cold weather starting.
Here you go. You can kindof see the box on the left that you’re talking about. I note the driver’s hatch is on the left instead of the center. Did it have ammo stowage in the other side, a la Leopard?
The real one is currently sitting about ten miles from me, I’ll be sure to get some photos of it next time I’m up that way.
I wouldn’t have thought that multi-fuel would be all that much of an issue with the engine. The 12 litre V6 in a Chieftan is multifuel, for example, will run on anything from diesel through alcohol. Personally, I found the turbine to be a royal pain, but maybe it’s just because we were overusing the tanks without proper support.
