The Tank Medium No. 2 Experimental Vehicle FV4202 also known as the 40-ton Centurion was a technology
test bed
A testbed (also spelled test bed) is a platform for conducting rigorous, transparent, and replicable testing of scientific theories, computing tools, and new technologies.
The term is used across many disciplines to describe experimental research ...
developed by British company
Leyland Motors
Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was an English vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 a ...
between 1955 and 1956. It was used to develop various concepts later used in the
Chieftain
A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribal societies
There is no definition for "tribe".
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of weste ...
main battle tank.
History
The FV4202 was built by Leyland Motors as a research vehicle for the
FVRDE
The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment (MVEE) was a British defence research unit on Chobham Lane, Chertsey in Surrey. It was responsible for many innovations in armoured vehicle design, including ceramic Chobham armour.
History
T ...
to test the conceptual layout of the proposed
FV4201 Chieftain main battle tank.
Three vehicles were built between 1955 and 1956. The weight of FV4202 was nearer 42 tons as the cast turrets were usually too heavy due to the fact that the manufacturers of the turret castings were paid by weight rather than per item.
One vehicle - an amalgam of two vehicles - is preserved at the Bovington
Tank Museum
The Tank Museum (previously the Bovington Tank Museum) is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about north of the village of Wool and west of the major port of Poole. The collection ...
and another one has been
employed as a recovery training aid at
SEME Bordon.
Design
The FV4202 test bed was built from readily available
Centurion
In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...
parts, such as the suspensions, smoke grenade dischargers, armament, hatches, cupola, sights and turret drive.
It featured a reclined driver position, allowing the use of a well-sloped glacis plate and the "mantletless" cast turret was built, with an internal gun mantlet.
Having a shorter hull than the Centurion, the FV4202 only had five road wheels per side. The FV4202 was also lower than the Centurion due to the use of 28 inch-diameter road wheels (31 inch for the Centurion). The tracks were a narrower variant of the ones used on the early Centurion marks.
The FV4202 is powered by the
Rolls-Royce Meteorite
The Rolls-Royce Meteorite, also known as the Rover Meteorite, was a post-war British V8 petrol or diesel engine was derived from the Rolls-Royce Meteor tank engine.
Development
In 1940 William Robotham who led a chassis design and developme ...
V8 petrol engine which was, in essence, two-thirds of a V12
Rolls-Royce Meteor
The Rolls-Royce Meteor later renamed the Rover Meteor is a British tank engine that was developed during the Second World War. It was used in British tanks up to 1964. It was a result of co-operation between Leyland Motors and Rolls-Royce who bet ...
.
The Meteorite has a 18.01 litre (1,099 cu in) capacity and deliver 520 bhp (393 kW) at 2,700 rpm.
The engine was coupled to a
Merritt-Brown V52
gearbox
A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...
originally developed for the Vickers Medium Cruiser Tank Mk. I.
Appearance in video games
The FV4202 appears in
War Thunder
''War Thunder'' is a 2013 free-to-play vehicular combat multiplayer video game produced by Gaijin Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Oculus, and Vive. It was first relea ...
,
World of Tanks
''World of Tanks'' (''WoT'') is an armoured warfare-themed multiplayer online game developed by Wargaming, featuring 20th century (1910s–1970s) era combat vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where the game is free-to-play ...
,
World of Tanks Blitz
''World of Tanks'' (''WoT'') is an armoured warfare-themed multiplayer online game developed by Wargaming, featuring 20th century (1910s–1970s) era combat vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where the game is free-to-play, ...
, and
World of Tanks: Modern Armor video games
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
.
See also
*
FV4201 Chieftain
*
Centurion (tank)
The FV4007 Centurion was the primary main battle tank of the British Army during the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing comba ...
*
Conqueror (tank)
The FV 214 Conqueror, also known as tank, heavy No. 1, 120 mm gun, Conqueror was a British heavy tank of the post-World War II era. It was developed as a response to the Soviet IS-3 (tank), IS-3 heavy tank. The Conqueror's main armament ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Centurion tanks, style=wide
Main battle tanks of the United Kingdom
Cold War tanks of the United Kingdom
Main battle tanks of the Cold War
Trial and research tanks of the United Kingdom