Armoured Cars.

Armoured steam powered tractors were used in the Crimean war I believe.

The earliest AFVs (armored fighting vehicles) in WWI were simply touring cars fitted with armor and a machine gun. Prior to the Rolls Royce mentioned above, the Belgians developed the Minerva at the outset of the war, although the later Rolls was much more sophisticated, incorporating a naval-designed rotating turret gun. This foreshadowed the shape of the majority of AFVs to come.

There were armored vehicles long before this, but most were wooden. The Boers in South Africa used a wagon laager much like the one developed by John Zizka in the 15th Century, although I assume the original question concerned metal armor (?).

JT



Edited by jacobtowne - 31-Oct-2006 at 09:18

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Armoured_Car

This was one of the earlier large production/known amoured cars.To find the so called "first" would be very open to debate I imagine.