Sd.Kfz 222 and Sd.Kfz 223 Ausf A - The Drivers Seat - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

Original images of the interior of the early armoured car series (Ausf A) are hard to find. Planning the floor layout, the dashboard with instrumentation almost always overlaps with the drivers seat. This feature is only seen from the rear showing the seat back frame and spring mechanism. The build structure of the seat - angle iron curved at the ends struck a cord in the minds of our research team. Where else would a seat be seen with these characteristics? Were these seats available in the dealer market at large? . Extensive research into the Panzer 1 Ausf B produced an interesting parallel insight into this seat design. Here was a seat that looked very similar from the rear - could this be a window into how the Ausf A leichte Spaehwagen seat was designed? We had measured and recorded the Panzer 1 seat extensively a few months back. How did this seat compare to the known dimensions of the Ausf A armoured car example. The clearest denominator was the floor mounted seat rack. This allows the seat to be set backs or forwards and is based on two parallel rails with locator holes set into the upper face of the rail. The seat base has corresponding locator pegs underneath which fit into these holes. . The le.SpW reference points on this armoured car seat rack was provided by the 4 Serie Sd.Kfz 223 within the US Cavalry and Armor Collection at Fort Benning. The two seat bases - Pz 1 vs Ausf A le. SpW were compared. A very significant difference was noted. The Pz 1 seat was 30mm wider than the 'look alike' armoured car equivalent. What else was different? . Drawing the Pz 1 seat in auto CAD highlighted these differences further. We had assumed at first that seats would have followed the same regime as found in later examples including Sd.Kfz 250, 251, StuG III Gs etc but no. A small number of side-on images looking through the side doors (including one particular versuchs image) made the call. The 45 degree side brace found on the Pz 1 seat was very different with the Ausf A armoured car example. This was an offset. Please see the images for reference. The offset seat brace was designed this way given that the drivers access to the car would be through the door across the seat. Panzer 1 drivers would access the seat from behind and above. This seat was set much higher from the floor and had a sizeable toolbox fitted beneath it and a base frame to suit. By contrast the armoured car seat was fitted just above the floor level on seat rail set on tabs tacked to the floor plate. The first two images taken of the seat on hardboard are of the Pz 1 seat. Another obvious difference is the wire handle on the seat adjustor of the le.SpW seat. This is missing on the Pz 1 seat. . The Foundation has 2 original armoured car seat examples. The material used in both the Pz 1 seat and le.SpW is essentially the same apart from the side braces and 30mm width difference. .

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