Ford Mk V Armoured Car
A renovated Ford Mk VI armoured car, similar and based upon the Ford Mk V, painted in UN colours for a commemorative event in Dublin, 2016
TypeArmored car
Place of origin Ireland
Production history
Designed1940
ManufacturerThompson & Son, Carlow
Produced1940
No. built14
VariantsFord Mk VI (from 1941)
Specifications
Length14 ft 8 inches
Width6 ft 7 inches
Height8 ft 3 inches
Crew3
Armor.5 inch
Main
armament
Hotchkiss .303 machine gun
Engine3,621cc Ford V8 petrol
85bhp[1]

The Ford Mk V Armoured Car was a light armored car, built in Ireland by Thompson & Son of Hanover Works, County Carlow.[1][2][3]

Specifications

The Ford Mk V was built with .5 inch mild steel plate, onto a Ford chassis of 122 inches.[4] Fitted with an 85 horsepower petrol Ford V8 3,621 cc engine,[4] the Mark V was much smaller, cheaper to build and had better performance than its predecessor the GSR Ford Mk IV Armoured Car.

When empty of all unessential equipment, the Mark V weighed just over five tons, and had a max speed of 45 km per hour (28 mph) and a range of 150 km (93 miles).[4] After the prototype was built, inspected and passed, the remaining 13 Ford Mk Vs were built and sold by 1954.

Fourteen were built in total with Peerless armoured car turrets and Hotchkiss .303 machine guns fitted. The vehicles were designed by Maj. J. V. Lawless and Comdt. A. W. Mayne, using ideas taken from the Rolls-Royce Armoured Car as well as from the Leyland Armoured Car.

Variants

A later variant, the Ford Mk VI Armoured Car, was also built by the Thompson company in Carlow.[5] 28 of the Ford Mk VI versions were built, with (unlike the Ford Mk Vs which had Peerless turrets) new turrets, modeled on a Landsverk design, built by the Thompson company themselves[5][6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Thompson Engineering". www.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  2. ↑ "Irish Armoured Cars 1930-1960s". www.juniorgeneral.org. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012.
  3. ↑ Riccio, Ralph A. (2011). AFVs in Irish Service Since 1922: From the National Army to the Irish Defence Forces. Stratus. ISBN 9788361421191.
  4. 1 2 3 "Ford Mk V Armoured Car". www.geocities.ws. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Ford Mk6 Armoured Car". www.geocities.ws. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Irish Armored Cars - Ford Mk VI" (PDF). Armored Car - the Wheeled Fighting Vehicle Journal (20). 20 November 1993. Retrieved 15 January 2022.

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