Fairly easy to work out what it is... (moved from the 'Name that vehicle' thread as it's kind of intriguing. : Mili Blog | military items | military vehicles | military trucks |Military Badge Collection ยป Original,WW2,British,vehicles But I'd love to know more??? - all I've seen is a picture so far, never heard of a Matador semitrack that I can remember.
THE AEC SOCIETY • View topic - AEC's ww2 half-track prototype. Reference there to more pics in here: The Associated Equipment Company's "Contribution to Victory" - page 1> Looks like I have some reading to do... Merged posts. Well that publication's a pleasure - not read much but looked at lots of lovely pictures - sadly, all I've noticed on the Halftrack is here: The Associated Equipment Company's "Contribution to Victory" - page 98> "One of the many experimental vehicles produced during hostilities. An AEC half track type vehicle built for the War office". Might have to ask that chap on the AEC forum if he published an article...
I've seen that pic before IIRC; they often print pics of odd prototypes in Classic Military vehicle if doing an article on the parent vehicle. Sometimes just run a couple of pages of new prototype pics if they have a lot at once! They ran an article summer before last specifically on the experimental history of halftracks in the British Army between the wars, and on into WWII, and various conversion kits for 1930s Army softskins and movers.
I tend to buy CMV intermittently Phylo, be intrigued if you could remember the issue or cover story as I've most of last year's - I'll have a dig. Just visualising 'em in a convoy with some Bedford Traclats - Stylish!
The Traclat? It was modeled almost completely on German pattern running gear, info is scarce though so I can't say if they actually used German parts, but they certainly copied them.
The Colombians obviously had other ideas: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Colombia/Colombia.html Tom.
I've got some info on this somewhere - I'll see if I can dig it up. Both the AEC half-track and the Traclat (or Tracklat - both terms seem to have been interchangeable) were attempts to produce artillery tractors that gave superior performance to wheeled equipments. I think the AEC version arrived first, and was tested sometime in 1943. This proved to be particularly unsatisfactory, so Vauxhalls created the only slightly less obscure Tracklat, based on the Sd.Kfz.7, which the British had come to admire. The Tracklat seems to have been sort-of-OK, but it was abandoned when it was found that the Oxford Carrier was a very good tower for 17 pounders.
