Israeli Nimda Shoet 6x6 wheeled APC

G'day gents

I am looking for information on the Israeli Nimda Shoet 6x6 wheeled armoured personnel carrier!
It was developed by Nimda Group of Israel as a private venture, along the concept lines of the Soviet BTR-152 APC.
The vehicle successfully passed tests with the IDF but didn't reach production.
The only thing I have on it is :
It weighed about 8 tonnes, was protected by 8-14mm sloped armour.
The power pack was a 172 hp GMC 6-cylinder V-53 engine and Allison MT-643 automatic hydromech torque converter transmission.

Does anyone have a date of when this was developed?
Did the Israeli's use and large number of M3 halftrack have an influence on its basic design - a sort of wheeled M3?
Does anyone know how many prototypes were built?
Any other pictures out there?

Thanks in advance!!

Regards
Pioneer

From: A Compendium of Armaments and Military Hardware, Christopher Chant, ISBN: 9780710207203, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1987.

NIMDA Shoet II

Crew 2: + 10
Combat weight: 9700 kg (21,384 lb)
Dimensions: length 6.64m (21.78 ft); width 2.20 m (7.22 ft); height 2.08m (6.82 ft)
Armament: up to four 0.5-in. (12.7-mm) or 7.62-mm (0.3-in.) machine-guns pintle-mounted round the top of the vehicle
Armour: welded steel varying in thickness from 8 to 14 mm (0.315 to 0.44 in)
Powerplant: one 172-hp (128-kW) Detroit Diesel 6V-53 diesel engine with 170 litres (37.4 Imp gal) of internal fuel, and driving a 6 x 6 layout
Performance: speed, road 90 km/h (56 mph); range, road 400 km (249 miles); fording not revealed; gradient 60%; side slope 30%; vertical obstacle not revealed; ground clearance not revealed

Variants
Shoet II: developed as a private venture, the Shoet II has an open-topped troop compartment which allows the vehicle to be transformed rapidly into an anti-tank vehicle (106-mm/3.17-in recoilless rile or anti-tank missile launcher), an anti-aircraft vehicle (guns or missiles), a mortar carrier (81-mm/3.2-in mortar and machine-guns), a reconnaissance vehicle (61-mm/2.4-in light mortar and machine-guns), an ambulance and a recovery vehicle; standard equipment includes night-vision devices, a central tyre pressure regulation system, and a fuel tank protection

Shoet III: improved features with more advanced operational features and other significant modifications"

Among othe things, Shoet III was fully-roofed unlike the the open-topped Mk II (I believe that Shoet I differed in having a gun-ring). Note that Chant's weight numbers vary from other sources - eg: 7264 kg (16,000 lbs). More photos: http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/54422

Some good and interesting info there Apophenia
Thanks a lot!!

Regards
Pioneer

A few photos of the Nimda Shoet that I've found in my files.

Google Translate from Hebrew to English of some article on this vehicle's development

and same pics but saved separately

more pics

International Defense Review on the subject

Thank you for the pictures skylancer-3441 & Petrus


Regards
Pioneer