Sherman vs Panther
 

Imho, the Panther was possibly the best medium tank of the war.
(Setting aside the T34, which was certainly superior in numbers.)
Fortunately Germany didn't have the time or resources to work out the bugs or produce that many.
The Sherman was always mediocre at best however it was easier to repair and we cranked 'em out by the thousands.

The Panther definitely appears to have had a superior tread design better adapted to climbing obstacles.

What the Panther had was:

Very experienced crews (while they lasted).
An excellent main gun.
Superlative sighting system
Well designed armour (copied from the Soviet T34).
Underpowered (for it's weight) and fuel guzzling engine.
Fragile gears.
A finicky in extreme conditions (think Russian winter) suspension system.
Low production and poor logistic for the task they had ahead.
Was rushed into action before perfectioned.

Here is the full Swedish vid of the test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmXEly5_u38

The Panther is acknowledged as overly complex. The Germans didn't have the time or the
metallurgy at the time to make the transmission and final drive more robust. Analysis has
shown that the Panther's final drive would fail after 1/2 hour at full power.

The Panther's Maybach engine ( as was some of the Shermans with radial engine) started life
as an aircraft engine and really wasn't appropriate for the task but they made it work.

Details like 2 speed cooling fans for the engine weren't really necessary. But consider the differences between American and German supply lines. When a German tank was damaged they could always ship it to a rear area or even the factory for rebuilding, the Allies, especially the Americans didn't have those sort of facilities available so we needed to field tanks that required no much more than common mechanical skills to maintain.

On top of everything else tanks weren't a priority for American during the inter-war period as they were for Germany. We are lucky that the Germans didn't focus on on their most effective designs to the exclusion of everything else; with the later more efficient designs sporting improved infra red night sights we could have had a tough time.

The Panther for me makes for a great modelling subject; I have 8 variants my 1/10 scale collection.

Jerry