After the war, the Sloan Museum and Buick bought this Hellcat from the former Yugoslavia and brought it back home to Flint. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, it was used in combat during the Bosnian conflict of the mid-90s, before it was disabled by an RPG that blew its left track off. Some time after the World War II, our M18 was given to the Yugoslavian Army, where it served throughout the Cold War. Purchased for around $48,000 in 2001, our Hellcat has a pretty interesting history. That brings us to 'our' Hellcat, which is owned by the Sloan Museum in Flint, Mich. Called the Continental R975 and found in the Sherman tank and aircraft like the Ford TriMotor, the engine made 400 hp and 940 lb-ft of torque, and was paired with a three-speed "Torqmatic" automatic transmission, giving the TD a top speed of 60 mph. But the Army still wasn't satisfied - they wanted more power out of its new tank destroyer, so Buick yanked its own engine out, and replaced it with a monstrous 16.0-liter supercharged radial nine-cylinder engine. With word of the thick frontal armor of the German panzer spreading, the Army ordered Buick to fit a larger 76 mm gun to one of the prototypes, and because of packaging and weight constraints with the new gun, Buick fit the new prototype with an open-topped turret. Though transmission problems limited top speed to just 38 mph, the Army saw some potential in Buick's design and ordered two prototypes. Its design studio, under the tutelage of legendary automotive designer Harley Earl, went to work in the fall of 1941, mounting a closed turret with a 57mm gun onto the chassis of a light tank. With the tank destroyer motto of "Seek, Strike, Destroy!" in mind, Buick was tasked with building the Army a prototype. That design would ultimately become the M18.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |