I thought they are in the same class owing to their similar weights. Just upgraded to meet developing threats etc. But yes I understand your point as well. For the Oplot, am I to understand the engine and/or transmission also suffered in the heat? I know Chinese forums have been saying 96 and 99 series have experienced transmission woes for a very long time (although the latest is that these have been addressed, how well we'll not know) and transmission is one serious weakness in Chinese tanks at the moment, engines are pretty decent and point of failure usually lies with the transmission.
As for the armour, could you elaborate on VT-4 weaknesses? and Oplot's comparative strengths? Appreciate your responses. Both are roughly the same weight with VT-4 being slightly heavier while having very similar dimensions to Oplot. Materials and composition specifics aside, I cannot imagine why the Oplot (which is not
renowned for its protection levels) can be miles ahead of VT-4 unless VT-4 is using armour from the 80s. I understand that Chinese used welded turrets and adopted western style turret design (read engineering) before the Soviets and composite armour with spacing, exotic materials, and optimised geometry is very simple easy stuff these days. Reactive armour is either directly purchased or license produced (maybe reverse engineered) from latest Russian ERA like Kontakt 5 and Relikt. Could they have watered down the armour for PA that much? Doubt it. Is it an issue of thickness (again VT-4 is heavier). You say that VT-4's armour is decent (I'm going to assume that's just acceptable and did not malfunction in tests (as expected for simple static components) but Oplot is miles ahead even though Oplot is not "well protected" compared to heavy weights. Heavy weights like M1 series, Leclerc, Leopard 2A5+ have all been knocked out in numbers by various primitive methods and weapons. Of course this is all a function of many complex factors but what I mean is, if Oplot's protection is miles ahead of VT-4 and at best overall equal to 53-70+Tonne tanks (actually pretty much so unrealistic it's impossible that a Ukrainian 80s based light tank can be equal in protection to something like a Leo2a5) just how bad is VT-4's armour hahahaha. They could have used mild steel
at this point going by how you described it.