Tsar (armored car)

Tsar
Tsar, photo taken before 1923
General properties
crew	10
length	17.8 m
width	10 or 12 m (different information)
height	9 m
Dimensions	60 t
Armor and armament
Armor	unknown
Main armament	1 × 150 mm on-board cannon
Secondary armament	2 x 7.62mm Maxim MG
agility
drive	two Maybach engines 2 × 176 kW (2 × 240 PS)
suspension	?
Top speed	17 km / h
Power / weight	8.0 hp / t
Range	?

The Tsar was a prototype of an armored fighting vehicle for the Russian Army that was developed during World War I.

The concept of the tsar was fundamentally different from the designs of armored vehicles in other countries. Instead of crawlers or wheels ordinary possessed the combat vehicle via a pair of nine meters high front wheels, each individually driven by a respective separate 240- PS - motor . The oversized wheels should allow trenches and other obstacles to be negotiated. The three rear wheels were much smaller, about one and a half meters high. The steering mechanism and parts of the armament were located in an elongated, transversely arranged combat area twelve meters wide at the level of the front axle. A 2.5 meter high gun turret was mounted on the fighting compartment.

A single vehicle of the Tsar was completed and tested in 1915. It turned out that the vehicle could not meet the expectations for off-road mobility. The small rear wheel tended to get stuck in soft ground, and the large front wheels powered were not enough to free the stuck tank. In addition, the vehicle was difficult to maneuver and the high front wheels would have been too sensitive to fire in combat.

Therefore, the project was discontinued in 1916 and no more copies were built. The prototype, which was damaged and immobilized during testing, was not repaired and was scrapped in 1923.

Web links

Commons : Tsar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Brief description of the Czar (English)
• Description at Tank Club ( Memento from December 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)