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Description
To be fully coherent, I shouldn't even do this for this particular tank, since it never really entered service. But it's too much of a temptation.
When the M tank began to take shape, around 1939-1940, it was felt the need of a heavy tank that should serve as "mobile center of fire", so basically as a supporting tank for the more common M tanks. A project was begun, for what was initially an enlarged version of the M tank, keeping its layout but with a turret armed with the 75 mm howitzer that would arm the Semovente da 75. However, soon it was found that there wasn't an engine powerful enough for a 26-tons tank, so it had to be designed and tested from scratch. Yet, work on this tank never got priority, and testing of the prototype began only in December 1941; the mock howitzer was soon replaced by a mock-up of a more powerful Cannone da 75/32. The project kept slowly trudging along, especially after it was decided to give the P40 sloping armour and to forego the hull machine-guns. Only in July 1942 the definitive prototype with the Cannone da 75/34 was ready for trials, with a 330 hp diesel engine (which was never really satisfactory). Only during the summer of 1943 production started to get in gear, but when Italy surrendered, only one tank had been delivered. The hundred or so effectively produced were taken in by the Wehrmacht, with more or less forty employed as static defense positions, because they had not their engines fitted. A company of P40s kept fighting till the end of the war, when they surrendered to the Allies near Tarvisio.
The P40 was by no means an exceptional tank : while being a major improvement from the M tanks, it still suffered from its riveted and substandard armour plating (and still insufficiently thick at the front), sloped as it may have been; its turret was for two men and lacked a commander's cupola, so it had poor ergonomics; the radio was still in the hull so to turn the turret the antenna had to be folded ip; the engine was never completely fitted out, so it was not reliable; the main gun, while not a bad artillery piece, was enough to deal with Sherman tanks, but it was pretty much obsolescent. And more than anything else, despite this drawbacks, was still too much for the strained and backward Italian industry. That said, the P40 was still the bigger and the most powerful tank Italy produced during World War 2, and considering from where it had started (read : Carro Veloce CV.33), it was a big and impressive achievement. Had it arrived earlier, it would have been a welcome arrival in the Italian Army, and not a good surprise to the Allies. But, sadly, this tank was doomed to be the most known of the lost opportunities Italy had.

Description
To be fully coherent, I shouldn't even do this for this particular tank, since it never really entered service. But it's too much of a temptation.
When the M tank began to take shape, around 1939-1940, it was felt the need of a heavy tank that should serve as "mobile center of fire", so basically as a supporting tank for the more common M tanks. A project was begun, for what was initially an enlarged version of the M tank, keeping its layout but with a turret armed with the 75 mm howitzer that would arm the Semovente da 75. However, soon it was found that there wasn't an engine powerful enough for a 26-tons tank, so it had to be designed and tested from scratch. Yet, work on this tank never got priority, and testing of the prototype began only in December 1941; the mock howitzer was soon replaced by a mock-up of a more powerful Cannone da 75/32. The project kept slowly trudging along, especially after it was decided to give the P40 sloping armour and to forego the hull machine-guns. Only in July 1942 the definitive prototype with the Cannone da 75/34 was ready for trials, with a 330 hp diesel engine (which was never really satisfactory). Only during the summer of 1943 production started to get in gear, but when Italy surrendered, only one tank had been delivered. The hundred or so effectively produced were taken in by the Wehrmacht, with more or less forty employed as static defense positions, because they had not their engines fitted. A company of P40s kept fighting till the end of the war, when they surrendered to the Allies near Tarvisio.
The P40 was by no means an exceptional tank : while being a major improvement from the M tanks, it still suffered from its riveted and substandard armour plating (and still insufficiently thick at the front), sloped as it may have been; its turret was for two men and lacked a commander's cupola, so it had poor ergonomics; the radio was still in the hull so to turn the turret the antenna had to be folded ip; the engine was never completely fitted out, so it was not reliable; the main gun, while not a bad artillery piece, was enough to deal with Sherman tanks, but it was pretty much obsolescent. And more than anything else, despite this drawbacks, was still too much for the strained and backward Italian industry. That said, the P40 was still the bigger and the most powerful tank Italy produced during World War 2, and considering from where it had started (read : Carro Veloce CV.33), it was a big and impressive achievement. Had it arrived earlier, it would have been a welcome arrival in the Italian Army, and not a good surprise to the Allies. But, sadly, this tank was doomed to be the most known of the lost opportunities Italy had.