THE JUDGE DREDD VEHICLES
The full story of the Judge Dredd vehicles has never been told before, and research is ongoing. You can be sure we will bring it to LRM readers as soon as we can.
By way of an introduction to what is a rather complicated story, Land Rover secured the contract to design and build the vehicles for the film, and the body was designed in-house by David Woodhouse.
Dunsfold Landrovers Ltd was given the task of identifying a suitable driving chassis that would accommodate the intended City Cab bodies, and Philip Bashall suggested the 101in Forward Control chassis because it was relatively flat and had incredible steering lock.
This was agreed, and the final body design was completed to fit the 101 chassis. Dunsfold was asked to source around 30 Forward Controls for Land Rover and, as luck would have it, a large batch of vehicles was coming out of the forces at the time, and Land Rover bought the lot.
Land Rover constructed a prototype at Canley and two contractors, Futura and Wood & Pickett, were tasked with creating the production bodies. The prototype was then finished to a high standard with a complete interior and was used during filming for close-ups and interior shots. The completed vehicles were finished in three different liveries: yellow and black, silver and black and red and black.
Filming took place at Shepperton Studios in the autumn of 1994 and was done at night. At Land Rover’s request, a small number of vehicles were made road-legal so they could be used at the première in London’s Leicester Square, and as promotional vehicles subsequently.
Land Rover’s leaflet