The T48 was to focus on improving the turret design of the M47 Patton and using a more powerful gasoline engine with better fuel economy. 1/4 and 1/8 scale design mockups of the turret were constructed during May 1950 using the T119 90mm main gun of the M47 Patton. The design study was accepted by the Army in December and a contract for the advanced production design and engineering (APE) of a 90mm armed tank, the T48, was awarded to the Chrysler Defense. Six prototypes were built, the first by December 1951. The hull was redesigned, moving the driver's station to the front center and the bow-mounted machine gun and its associated crew station were removed and converted to safe container storage for additional main gun ammunition. The front glacis was redesigned into a slope and offered much better ballistic protection than former welded and rather flat designs. The driver steered the vehicle using an aircraft styled steering wheel. Initially the power pack consisted of the Continental AV-1790-5B gasoline engine producing 704 brake horsepower coupled to an Allison CD-850-4A cross-drive transmission with 2 forward and 1 reverse ranges. The hull armor was increased to on the front glacis of rolled homogeneous steel. It had six roadwheel pairs per side and five return rollers, a torsion bar suspension system, using the T97E2 steel track assembly. A new hemispherically shaped turret was implemented for the T48. This was to eliminate the noted shot traps in the M47's turret design and also lowered the vehicle's height in comparison to the M46 and M47. T48 pilot #1 was constructed by Chrysler Engineering to begin the design development at the OTAC Detroit Arsenal Test Center in December 1951.