Rommel's Hot Rod

[Phaelen Bleux]

If someone can come up with a more "authentic" name, I'm game. My German is not so good.

Rommel's Hot Rod
Designed for Monogram models by Tom Daniel, this "concept car" was a Mercedes-Benz G4 limousine (p. W:MP35) given a half-track chassis. It featured a machine gun mounted on a pintle on the windshield, and a fixed rearward facing MG. As befitting a successful high-ranking officer, the car featured a plush interior, a map table, a radio, ammo cases, and a high-powered Mercedes engine. Sadly, air conditioning was not available.
The car has room for one driver and six passengers. It burns 6.7 gallons of gasoline per hour at routine usage. A full tank of petrol costs $9.

Subassemblies: Small Halftrack chassis +3; tracks +3.
Powertrain: 149-kW Standard gasoline engine with 149-kW tracked drivetrain; 60-gallon standard fuel tank; 4,000-kW battery.
Occ.: 1 XCS Body, 6 XPS Body
Cargo: 8 Body

Armor F RL B T U
Body: 4/60 4/60 4/60 2/2C 4/60
Tracks: 3/15 3/15 3/15 3/15 3/15

Weaponry:
2xGround LMG/MG42 [Body:F,B] (500 rounds each).

Equipment:
Body: Medium radio transmitter and receiver.

Statistics:
Size: 18'x6'x6' Payload: 0.72 tons Lwt.: 9.33 tons
Volume: 48 Maint.: 119 hours Cost: $2,787
HT: 8. HPs: 300 Body, 42 each Track.
gSpeed: 48 gAccel: 3 gDecel: 20 gMR: 0.25 gSR: 4
Ground Pressure: Moderate. 1/3 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:
This vehicle was designed exactly to MVDS standards.

[AmesJainchill]

Is this thing real?

[Phaelen Bleux]

Nah, just a model. It's for those who might like a little WWII humor.

[copeab]

Here are photos of the model:

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=265500

[Michele]

Rommel being a general who found really important to ride about close to the front lines, one can find him aboard several interesting vehicles in historical reality, without needing a fictional one (however flashy that is).

The best known was called Greif (Griffin), and it was a SdKfz 250/3 radio command halftrack (p. W108). No rear-facing LMG but a large aerial for its large radios. In photos, it seems the back door was kept closed in order to carry a large amount of jerrycans on a rack.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/art/_________gr.html

Rommel also used another SdKfz 253 called Adler (Eagle). However, I've read that this was Gen. Crüwell's personal vehicle. Maybe Rommel hitch-hiked?


Another interesting vehicle related with Rommel was called Max. This was actually a captured British vehicle, an AEC Dorchester (based on the unarmored Matador heavy truck). It was a command armored truck. While Rommel was photographed near or on top of this truck, it actually carried his staff, mostly. It was more suitable to carrying around all those maps, a table for them, and staff officers.
I don't know of a GURPS WWII write-up for this.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8453

Another source calling the original British vehicle Mammuth, instead of Dorchester:

http://beute.narod.ru/Beutepanzer/uk..._mamuth-04.htm


And there was the Igel (Hedgehog). This was a SdKfz 253. That's a Beobachtungswagen version, an artillery observer's vehicle, normally used with armored artillery batteries (i.e. it should go with StuGs). Take a SdKfz 250, give it a closed top (with the same armor thickness as the sides). Remove the rear-facing MG and add a large radio (with the usual distinctive large aerial). Add a small periscope (p. W139) and the smallest "targeting computer" (p. W140), acutally representing optical rangefinders etc.

Several photos here:

http://www.afrikakorps.org/adlerigelgreif.htm