Wapiti...3
The gearbox was ordered through Leyland Montreal.The vehicle has an airshifter which allows you to preselect each gear a bit like a Ferret car. The controlled differential was a custom designed and built but seems very similar to the M24 type diff in a Chaffee. Most major suspension components were made of aluminium & magnesium to reduce weight as is the hull and rivetted aircraft style body. The vehicle is rear engined with the diff in the front.
The first vehicle was delivered to DND in Dec 1952 while the last two were completed May 1953. Following extensive testing a number a material failures become apparent- the lighweight components, support brackets etc in the suspension were not up to the task. Even after a redesign the support brackets were ultimately made of stronger ferrous metals. With its hi compression engine starting and running in cold climates was a challenge and by the time the compression ratio was lowered the engine was deemed to be underpowered for the vehicle. The final recommendations for the vehicle included the installation of a 200-250HP V8 engine with an automatic transmission. This of course never occurred.
There were hope among the DND officials that the US would be interested in this oversnow vehicle but instead they went ahead with their own version ( the OTTER) which must have cost even more to develop and build.One of the documents I located suggest that a Continental air cooled engine (as per OTTER) would cost $22,000 each!! When the project finally concluded the total cost for developing and building the 3 Wapiti prototypes was $1,250,000.00. Don't forget that this was 1952-53 when you could buy a nice middle class home for a few thousand dollars!
This is a brief overview of what I have found. Please add any comments, pictures or information you might have to this story.
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