Marmon Herrington Mk III early vs Mk III late – Identification – Part 2 - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

Returning once more to the current limited information the distinction is not clear as to what constitutes an early or late Marmon Herrington MK III car. William Marshall is the only useful but restricted guide into this area. Early cars are have shrouded head lamp covers, side fender mounted stowage and no rear door with a spare wheel in its place, late examples with standard unshrouded headlamps, side mounted spare wheel and a rear door. . What about the different hook arrangements we have noted between the ‘early’ and the late - the hook configuration on the early versus the later towing eye arrangement? What about the angle iron fitting on the rear of the late Mk III =- how much of this is a post war trailer fitting welded on? What if an early Marmon Herrington without a rear door has always had standard headlamps not the shrouded variety? The rear stowage fittings found on the early versus none on the late, the different pigs tail hook fittings along the side of the late versus early? Could these differences be attributed to the assembler or do these differences simply disappear as the Mk III evolves over time? . The engine is also different in the ‘early’ example. It is an aluminium head Ford flat head V8. This might not be meaningful but will require investigation. There are no chassis numbers available on the specified place – on the inside of the doors. The doors have been removed as has the upper superstructure above shoulder height for a seated crew member. There are a number of numbers elsewhere on both armoured cars. We will investigate each one of these to see if they represent anything significant and could throw light on the chassis number. Completion of the upper superstructure will prove a challenge but what is fortunate is that the superstructure is a skeleton of angle iron and flat bar (the frame) to which the armour plate is fixed to form the armoured hull. The existing angles provide the most difficult structural answers. The missing angles and dimensions will be extracted from the survivors in South Africa. The early vehicle is likely to be the challenge as there is no known survivor from which to draw detail from.

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