What did Leonardo da Vinci call his armored fighting vehicle design?

Leonardo da Vinci’s armored fighting vehicle design is commonly called an armored car.

Leonardo designed the vehicle in the late fifteenth century as a conical, armored machine powered by people turning internal cranks. Its sloping shell was intended to deflect projectiles, while the vehicle’s perimeter carried light cannons. The concept is often compared with a modern tank because it combined protection, mobility, and mounted weapons.

The machine was never built for Renaissance warfare. A commonly repeated story says Leonardo deliberately included a gearing error so that his patron would not easily use the design, but historians treat that explanation cautiously; the surviving drawing may reflect a technical mistake or an incomplete plan.

The vehicle’s proposed crew would have had to operate the cranks inside the cramped shell. Its practical limitations included heavy weight, difficult steering, and uncertain propulsion, making it more significant as an early armored-vehicle concept than as a workable battlefield machine.