Four wheels good, six wheels better

THE Land Rover 6x6 vehicles, built to supply the Australian Army as part of Project Perentie, were incredibly unique. It had been a long slog even to get to contract approval stage for Land Rover Australia, with the company bidding for both the 1-tonne and 2-tonne payload vehicle contracts and having to wait two years while the Australian Army tested LRA’S vehicles, as well as the competitor Jeep (J10) and Mercedes 300GD, before full-time construction could begin.

The vehicle’s many mods from the ‘standard’ 4x4 110 (and earlier 6x6 Landy) included a wider cab (capable of carrying combat-gear-equipped troops three-abreast), a wider track front and rear (a heady 200mm wider than the 110) and a (comparatively) ‘beefed-up’ 90kw/314nm Isuzu 3.9-litre turbo-diesel. The eventual contract saw LRA building and supplying 588 6x6 vehicles. This 588 comprised eight variants: Cargo, Cargo with winch, Air Defence with winch, RBS70 and a separate Rapier variant, winch-equipped ambulances, a general maintenance rig (also winch-equipped), an electronics repair vehicle, and the famous LRPV (with, yep, a winch of course). On top of these, there were numerous other variants, including dual-cab, firefighting, mobile command post, light-armoured, personnel carrier, a variant light enough to be transported by helicopter, and a Comms vehicle, among others.