The A7V was Germany's response to the invention of the tank by the French and British. It resembled a house on tracks, and consisted of an armored box sitting atop a Holt tractor chassis. The captured 5.7cm gun protruded from the nose, and machine guns bristled from the flanks and rear. The vehicle had limited ability to climb, since there were large overhangs at the front and rear of the tank, and the design was also top-heavy and unstable. The commander and driver sat in a raised cupola in the center of the vehicle, directly on top of the engines. The motors ran through a common transmission shaft to the gearbox in the rear of the tank.