Tamiya released a new 1/16 radio-control Tiger kit in August 2000. It is remarkable in that it makes engine noises recorded from a real Maybach HL230.
At the Tamiya site you can see video clips of the model and hear the sounds it makes.
This page is a translation, by Mayo Takeuchi, of an article from the Tamiya site describing how they recorded the engine.
The French Tank Museum at Saumur happened to be our last stop
on an annual European reporting trip that evolved from our
participation in the German toy fair at Nuremburg in February.
From an unseasonably warm and sunny Northern Italy, we arrived to
be greeted with an unseasonable rainstorm at the Charles De Gaul
airport in the evening. Apparently they too were having a warm
winter. We immediately began our car trip from Paris to the south-west,
300 km to Saumur which is located by the Loire. The trip took
about three and a half hours.
Although some of you may be aware of this already, in fact the
Saumur Tank Museum serves as the French military storage facility
of materials; thus the head of the Museum along with the staff
are all military personnel. 'Repository' is a name ill-fitted to
the sheer volume of things that are stockpiled there. While about
100 items are on display, firearms and other vehicles that have
not been on show number over 700, and it can be considered one of
the world's foremost collections.
Our fears of further rain dissipated with the morning sunshine,
an auspicious start to our report. Our investigative efforts were
a bit unusual this time, since we weren't focussing on the
vehicle itself. In fact, our mission was to record the sounds
unique to the Maybach engine found in the King Tiger tank. The
world's only functioning King Tiger is at Saumur. Excited, we
arrived slightly before the museum's opening hour of 9AM. We were
greeted first by the smiling Colonel Olmer, who first ushered us
through to a fleet of Renault tanks, the pride of France. Renault
is famous for inventing the rotating turret on tanks. Passing
through this area to a separate wing devoted to German vehicles,
we next saw the King Tiger and Tiger I amicably placed next to
each other. It is said that no less than five separate vehicles
were used to resurrect the workings of the King Tiger, and from
this we can discern the passion of the Saumur staff concerning
its restoration.
Normally our investigation would then see us relax somewhat and
become impressed with the dimensions and size of the vehicle, but
we were still worried this time even with the real thing in front
of us. Before we had left Japan the Colonel had written the
following to us: "since she's a rather old lady, I cannot
take responsibility should she turn a deaf ear to our requests".
In short, he could not assure us that the engine would start, so
his correspondence was hardly encouraging. After all, the
machinery dates back to over half a century. However, since we
had travelled all the way from Japan, we were determined to not
disappoint those who were waiting back at the head office. Even
though we're talking solely of engine noise, the "live"
sounds of a Tiger cannot easily be obtained. So in anticipation
of this day, we had rehearsed the recording process (although
this may seem perhaps a bit over the top) because none of us were
sound experts. As well, the event was made more special by the
cooperation of the French staff, whose military ties made their
efforts almost diplomatic; we could not afford to miss this
chance. Fortunately, the colonel had given us complete
cooperation by lending us three of his veteran mechanics.
We immediately set up the digital audio and video equipment
that we had so carefully carried with us from Japan throughout
this trip, and waited for the signal to start the engine. It was
first started using a cell motor (battery). The large battery,
which was the power source for this trial, was affixed to the
exterior of the tank. In order to prevent fire and ensure safety
the battery was kept on the outside.
The startup was astonishingly easy. Startup time was even shorter
than that of modern cars. The V-type, 12 cylinder, 700 horsepower
gasoline-powered engine sputtered into life. It was a
surprisingly dry sound. At the time, although the engine was not
muffled, it didn't seem overly loud. Unlike engines that run
smoothly such as modern electric motors, its sounds were awkward,
and akin to rough "rustling". Since it is rarely run
the exhaust fumes were copious. The white smoke arose steadily
not only from the rear exhaust pipe but from the louvres above
the engine compartment. Since there were no plans to drive the
tank, the room quickly filled up with what seemed like fog. The
sound echoed fortuitously against the walls of the museum. As we
had requested, the head mechanic increased the engine revolutions
periodically. We watched the actual manifestation of the models
we had created as youths, creating fire in its engine just for us.
Despite our professionalism we felt sentimental for a moment, and
after the first run of the engine we couldn't help but awkwardly
exclaim "Tres bien!" to the Colonel to express our
gratitude.
We were allotted very little time for our mission. Next the
mechanics attempted to manually crank-start the engine. This
involves spinning up the flywheel in the engine compartment using
a crank, and using its rotational inertia to start the engine.
The two mechanics deftly turned the heavy-looking crank. When the
flywheel gained momentum one would release the link to the crank,
and at the same time the operator would try the engine. Unlike in
the cell-motor start, the keening of the flywheel and the groans
of the laborious sounds of rotation were distinctive. To draw a
comparison the sounds were reminiscent of the noises the fan of a
running jet engine.
Alas, the crank-starting required a lot of effort. They attempted
it three times in succession but all tries failed. Even these
dependable mechanics ran out of breath, but after a break they
tried once more. Just at the moment we believed that the fourth
attempt would also fail, the engine came back to life. During the
war, one wonders if the batteries would become so weak during the
bitterly cold winters and they had to depend on the crank
mechanism. Perhaps this engine start went as smoothly as it did
due to the mild winter. Heating is not on in the early morning at
the museum, and the concrete floors chill one to the bone;
however, temperatures never dropped below freezing as it had in
past years. In fact, the day became a balmy, spring-like 16
degrees. So we recorded the manual start as well, and the King
Tiger returned to its slumber.
As an aside, we were able to see a few instances of the
exhaust pipe spectacularly backfiring (with fire spouting) whilst
the engine ran. We then appreciated the reason why so many late
German models were fitted with flash guards. Surely they would
have been easily spotted during nighttime battles; the backfiring
would serve handily as the enemy's aiming light. Although the
entire recording process took slightly less than 20 minutes, it
seemed like a long time. Now all that remained was to place these
recordings into the hands of a professional arranger. These
sounds are to become part of the convincingly real 1/16 RC Tiger
tank model that will be unveiled in spring at the fair.
On our way out, we were asked to credit the Saumur museum for its
cooperation by Colonel Olmer. The reason was that the museum
wished to appeal to everyone to set eyes on the vehicle, and to
draw more visitors. Although this museum is a government facility,
they require enormous amounts of revenue in order to maintain
their collection in premiere condition. The larger the crowds,
the sooner many unseen pieces can be restored for viewing. Of
course we were intending to likewise speak to them about credit;
it is to our best interest also to spread the word of the genuine
nature of the sounds accompanying the Tiger model.
This investigation was unique in that we were able to fulfill an
almost impossible dream of warming up the treasured King Tiger,
which in turn gave us a splendid "recital". We would
like to formally and profoundly thank the head of the Saumur Tank
Museum as well as each of the staff. We can hardly wait to visit
them again, along with the completed model as a gift.
Translated by: Mayo Takeuchi