An interesting Porche prototype, VK4502(P), Porche's design for the Tiger II. The Porche designed early turret was a hint that got me looking at Porche prototypes in the first place, and the mid engine design just SCREAMS Porche too. That was too big of a hint, especially for Tiger II fans.
Oh, BTW the proper nomenclature for the turret is the "early" turret, not the Porche turret. Both the Porche and Henchel turrets were actually built by Krupp but the Henchel version eliminated a number of problems that the Porche turret had, in particular a nasty shell trap under the gun mantlet and a bulge in the turret's left hand side armour where the commander's cupola was situated.
Unfortunately for Dr. Porsche his fascination with advanced engine design led to the ultimate failure of the VK 4502 (P). The 10-cylinder engines failed during trials, and there was no confidence that the design would bear fruit (given previous Porsche failures using the same drivetrain layout). Work continued into the middle of 1944, but progress to get the design working failed. Ultimately the 50 turrets Porche produced through Krupp for the VK 4502 (P), were converted for use on the Henschel Tiger II to eliminate waste.
Oh BTW glock89, change the images name, next time. I saved it to have a visual reference when searching, and thought you had, but it was the prototype number, go figure.
