Porsche vs Henschel King Tiger

[PainlessWolf]

Good afternoon,
I will answer in the form of a photograph. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[Raminator]

The Porsche KT turret is just as much of an abomination as the Porsche Tiger. Ferdinand should have stuck with engineering and left design to his son.

[Tiggr]

And yet still the most practical Supercar you can buy.
Shaun.

If you can keep the tail end on the road.........
Obviously later models with 4 wheel drive and controlled traction and added weight over the front wheels have overcome this serious design flaw.

How was it a design flaw? Before the latest electronic gizmos and 4wd, porche were trouncing the opposition, especially unpredictable mid engine cars on the track in production races, that's why so many were sold for racing, and why they ended up with so many different race classes, when I used to follow British touring car and production racing around the country, the 'design flawed' porche cornered astoundingly well (obviously wasn't in touring car races, support races and their own races on other weekends). One only has to look back at the stats of their old two wheel drive cars to see it. And now with 4wd, they're even better.

Mick.

Yes Mick - they all had big lead weights over the front wheels to compensate for the huge pendulum effect the rear mounted engine had.
Like I said - flawed engineering.

[jackalope]

Tig, I said the exact same thing! LOL! Understeers like a garbage truck on ice heading down a hill! LOL!

[Afrikakorps]

Well, it really is love'm or hate'm isn't it. or

[jackalope]

No the Porshe turrets were left over from the failed Tiger I prototype by Porsche. They found the turret could handle the L71 gun so it was mated to the Tiger II lower hull. Thats also where the Ferdinand/Elephant lower hull came from, they were left overs from the failed Tiger I prototype. Germany was in such need for ANY armor they used whatever they could.

Porsche cars are very very nice, not perfect but nice.

[jarndice]

Hi Mick,
We had this discussion on modern Tanks with what I perceived as Shot traps,
I was universally, excuse me, shot down with my comments,
Apparently these are not "Shot Traps",
Yeah Right !!
Shaun.

[Afrikakorps]

I have read a lot and heard a lot said about the Porsche turret being a "shot trap", but also read that it was more costly and time consuming to produce than the Henschel turret. Either way, Porsche was not the winning candidate for the the final production run.

Can anyone show me a photograph of a Porsche King Tiger that was knocked out because of the turret "shot trap" ?

Thanks
AK

[BarryC]

Not being a "true" fan of the King Tiger though it was truly an awesome weapon and arguably the zenith of WWII tank design.
IMO the Porsche turret is much better looking than the "flat" manteled Henschel turret.

Barry

[jackalope]

No the Porshe turrets were left over from the failed Tiger I prototype by Porsche. They found the turret could handle the L71 gun so it was mated to the Tiger II lower hull. Thats also where the Ferdinand/Elephant lower hull came from, they were left overs from the failed Tiger I prototype. Germany was in such need for ANY armor they used whatever they could.

Porsche cars are very very nice, not perfect but nice.

I'll give you a couple of copied and pasted quotes from the tank museums literature.
"the Porsche design; VK45.02(P) was BASED on the earlier rejected design for the Tiger I with enhanced armament"
And.
This turret, frequently, and incorrectly named, the ‘Henschel’ turret, was much easier to build as it eliminated many of the complicated curved forgings and extensive machining which the original turret had demanded. The slightly sloped front plate of this new turret also eliminated the shot trap which had existed on the old design and had the benefit of providing greater internal turret room space allowing 86 rounds of ammunition to the Porsche designed turret’s 80.

Mick.

BASED on left over turrets that were modified to fit the L71. I read the same thing, however also read that the ones that were made from the left over never finished Tiger I prototype. Again thats also where the Ferdinand and Elephant got there lower hulls from.