During my research on the HL230P45 engine fitted to the Saumur Tiger it came to my attention that this is not a P45 engine but rather a P30 as fitted to Tiger II or Panther the engine is also missing the magnetos but this is probably to maintain running order of another tank, the engine was probably fitted after it was captured by the French thus far I haven’t found any information that SS102 shared maintenance areas with 9th SS H or 12th SS HJ both had Panthers but then the French captured quite a number of Panthers that were in service until the 80’s so it’s highly likely that the French replaced the engine on this tank, it is known that the French had 2 Tiger I and at least 1 Tiger 2 but my conversations with Saumur says they have no war time records so anything was possible


Here is the completed engine like I say it’s far from perfect but a lot better than it was to begin with some detail I have missed as it won’t be seen next comes the job of installing it in the Tiger.