Penguin Mkll

[David Herbert]

Rob,

What a great vehicle, I had always wondered what happened to the Armoured Snowmobiles. Do you have the tracks for it or will you be making them?

The primary WW2 use of Cadillac V8s was Stuart tanks (series 42) and Chaffee and LVT3 (series 44). I believe that the core engine is identical but the 44s have a drive shaft with universal joints threaded through under the inlet manifold. This is to drive the fans on a chaffee. The LVT3 inherrited this arrangement and I would expect that the Armoured Snowmobile / Penguin did too. The Hydramatic gearbox used in Stuart had a reverse gear but the ones used in Chaffee and I believe LVT3 did not have a reverse gear, this was done in the 2f + 2r transfer box. This engine was also used in infantry landing craft but presumably marineised to some degree. One of the nice things with these engines is that the exhaust manifold was black vitreous enameled and bolted on with stainless bolts - Cadillac had their standards to uphold !

I love the "spot the racoon" side to this thread, what happened to the photo of them looking out of the road drain? From a British perspective they are just cute!

Really looking forward to the you being able to get into the restoration of this machine and posting more photos - thanks for going public.

David