V-100

In June 1962, the Cadillac Gage Company completed the prototype for a new lightweight 4x4 armored car designated as the V-100. Also dubbed the Commando, it was designed to replace the obsolete M8 and M20 armored cars still in use from WWII. The V-100 was capable of carrying up to 12 men and included a variety of optional weapons systems, mostly small-caliber machine guns. The all-around protection of the vehicle was 1/4-Inches, although 3/8-Inches could be provided in more critical areas.

The V-100 was powered by a single Chrysler 361 engine which could propel the vehicle to a maximum of 60 mph on level ground. While the car was completely amphibious, it could only do 4 mph in water. The first  three pilots would soon be shipped to Vietnam in 1963 for combat trials and other tests.

The V-100 with a 20 mm autocannon.

Pilot #5 differed from previous vehicles in several respects. The side armor was now single-piece rather than being welded, the rear door was now two-piece rather than one, and the turret received new power operation and armament. This turret was fitted with a 20 mm machine gun, and another option was the low-recoil MECAR cannon. Pilot #6 fine-tuned the design further and would become the production variant of the V-100. Production began in 1964 under the new designation M706. It would see most of its use by the United States as an escort vehicle for convoys in Vietnam.

Here the V-100 is equipped with a 90 mm MECAR gun.

The V-100 features a high-tier autocannon for its stock option, which at Tier VIII is certainly lackluster. The gun's penetration should be pretty poor, at maybe 70 mm, and do perhaps 20 damage? I think there would ideally be around a 50-50 chance of penetrating the side armor of a typical Tier VIII tank. 

With a one-second burst, I think it would be fair to carry 200 potential alpha damage. In a five-second burst, this would rise to 1000 alpha damage. Against most targets, taking RNG into account forces this to drop considerably. We want such high-tier autocannons to be considerable threats against lightly armored targets, but we don't want them to flat-out vaporize them. This would require some very careful balancing to get right, specifically in the inter-clip reload speed and number of shells per shot, but I think it's possible.

The biggest downside to the autocannon is that it clearly wouldn't be able to penetrate a lot of armor, particularly well-armored heavy tanks and and above its tier. Fortunately there is a more conventional tank gun as a second option.



Guns: 20 mm Oerlikon M139 (autocannon); 90 mm Mecar CAN-90L

Engines: Chrysler 75M (191 hp); Chrysler 361 (210 hp)

Turrets (Turret Armor (mm)): Commando T-90 (10/7/7)

Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): V-100 Early (7.37); M706 (7.37)

Hull Armor (mm): 10/7/7

Top Speed: 97 km/h

Crew: 3 (Driver; Gunner; Commander/Radio/Loader)



Parent: M20 AUC
Children: FMC AIFV, V-150, V-300
See Also: V-200

Sources:

Hunnicutt, R. P. Armored Car, 2002.