Timoney Light Tank

[JAZZ]

Proposal by Technology Investments to develop a light tank, i think back in the early 1980's...nothing remarkable 13,000kg, 320hp diesel similar in concept to the US HSTV - according to JA&A. Looks like it is armoured with a 90mm Cockeral? any one confirm main gun armament.

Rendered drwaing attached.

 

[Petrus]

Very interesting. It seems the Timoney company worked not only on wheeled vehicles but also on tracked.

As for the wheeled Timoneys, probably a vehicle that they built for Tanzania is the most interesting. All what I could find on that vehicle on the Internet is at http://www.geocities.com/irisharmoredvehicles/TARV_Mk1.html . I would be really grateful for more details (e.g. dimensions) on the vehicle as well as more pictures of it.

Here is a picture of the 'Tanzanian' Timoney armoured car:

Best regards,
Piotr

 

[JAZZ]

Nice site - thanks Petrus

 

[thebig C]

Nice find. I am really surprised at this as until now I can only recall Timoney being involved with one tracked vehicle. That being the Bionix IFV, which is built by their new owner Singapore Technologies. Even then, the extent of Timoneys involvement was with regard to the suspension system!

 

[Nik]

Seems a modest, but careful design...

Uh, sadly the geocities links to site and piccy are down: I can't tell if the site has died, or my ISP has blocked it.

 

[MihoshiK]

Seems a modest, but careful design...

Uh, sadly the geocities links to site and piccy are down: I can't tell if the site has died, or my ISP has blocked it.

Geoshitties was what rolled over and died.

You might still find the site using the Wayback machine

 

[thebig C]

That Geocities page was down for ages but reappeared recently....usually when I look it up through Google images! Some of the pics are gone unfortunately.

I have to say though, I remember looking at the site when it was active a few years ago and I don't remember seeing that tank. The timoney section was all/mostly wheeled vehicles.

Does anybody else think it looks like a re-turreted AAI Corp tank?

C

 

[DanielStarseer]

....
Does anybody else think it looks like a re-turreted AAI Corp tank?

C

If that was the case, that definitely wouldn't be a 90mm CMI gun (not a very good to-scale depiction of it)...
And I know he says it's a rendered picture, but consider this: with a single turret hatch/cupola, and the placement of the forward-looking vision block, that kind of suggests the gun is going to recoil right into someone's lap, doesn't it?
Or at least eject a spent case right at someone's midsection...?

If the chassis was closer in size to the AAI tank as you suggest, then by scale I'd suggest the gun is more likely in the 35-60mm range.

That could actually have potential (comparable to Stormer 30 light tank).
Or back in the day (1980s?) possibly be a competitor for the MARS 15 family, a French design intended to succeed the AMX-13s....?

 

[robunos]

Hit the Wayback Machine, the page in question is here :-

http://web.archive.org/web/20091026193406/www.geocities.com/irisharmoredvehicles/TARV_Mk1.html

unfortunately the hi-res image is unavailable.

The home page to the site is here :-

http://web.archive.org/web/20091027001043/www.geocities.com/irisharmoredvehicles/index.html

There are several interesting prototypes shown, although again, in several cases, the hi-res image is missing...


cheers,
Robin.

 

[thebig C]

Hey


Thanks for the links Robunos Thats the website I remember. Some lovely designs there. Its a dreadful shame that the Irish Government wasn't very supportive!

Again though, I don't see any reference to a light tank. I've tried googling it with no luck. I thought it might show up as a reference in some industry publication.

C

 

[thebig C]

I have done a bit more trawling since first posting here.

Thus far I can only find Timoney being involved in wheeled vehicles in thae 1970s/1980s, this seems to be the only reference to a tracked vehicle.

Some nice guesswork above from Daniel Starseer. MARS 15 was a vehicle family, I believe there was a common chassis, and different turrets could be added. The roof only had to be raised slightly to form an IFV. Looking at the Timoney drawing....it looks like alot of modifications are necessary to accomodate any troops.

As for the gun, I kind of agree that it looks a little small to be a 90mm. Is 75/76 a possibility? As far as I know, the only light tank/IFV with a 60mm (OTO Malera) was the cancelled Polish BWP-2000?!

C

 

[thebig C]

Actually, I am suprised that I forgot this, but the 60mm was adopted widely on a number of platforms by Chile. It was designed by IMI.

C