Land Rover Defender 90 LRPV Goes for a Drive

Only a handful of light weight air portable Defender 90s were built for the British Army in the early '90s, and you can count how many were converted to Long Range Patrol Vehicles (LRPV) and this is the ONLY survivor.
This Land Rover is for sale at www.percivalmotorco.co.uk
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[@mickles1975]

That engine sounds glorious.

[@stevek3636]

Military spec requirements include KPH speedometer and left hand drive is pretty standard as well. And your timepiece should be set to Zulu (GMT). Also NATO standard tea is milk and two sugars! Great to see one of these again. Thanks.

[@Ade2bee]

Ahhhh NATO standard... As slid accross many a T-bar and NAAFI counter

[@charliemansonUK]

You cant beat a NATO standard when your hanging out of your arse.....seeing that land rover in the near distance with a tea urn or hotlok on the tailgate melted away the misery of the cold damp misty moors and ranges. Or in civvy speak: a Hot (warm) sweet tea can really cheer you up when a tad tired. Peace Charlie 🇬🇧

[@gunner678]

Standard lol!

[@deanprosser5224]

Brilliant video, good to see a basic old land rover, the Army actually paid more for them to be stripped down. It brought back some memories but at least mine had a roof :-)

[@grayfool]

That's a proper Land Rover. Built to be a tool, not some weedy poseur. Brilliant stuff. Real furious vehicle .

[@samr5043]

Brings back fond memories of the Ex-MOD 90 we owned in the 90s and 00s. Ours was a 1985 2.5d. Sadly it went to an unloving home when we needed a new boiler in 2009. Think it's in the workshop in the sky now...

[@dortkommendieclowns1474]

Perfect time of the year to review this car 😄

[@furiousdriving]

I time these things with precision!

[@1965vw]

What a great video! It's so nice to see a proper, no frills Land Rover. Great job on the audio too :)

[@alech8336]

What a fantastic range of vehicles you are reviewing at the moment! BRAVO!

[@Lawrence-ui1hv]

Hi, I think the naturally aspirated 2.5 Diesel produced 67hp as opposed to the 83hp as stated. The turbocharged version of this engine produced around 83hp. Great video, I love watching them.

[@jezzaqc]

Well that’s something of a contrast to last week’s Toyota Carina E !

[@furiousdriving]

I like to mix things up!

[@jezzaqc]

You certainly did! I think I’d prefer the Toyota on a rainy day though ....

[@furiousdriving]

@@jezzaqc me too!

[@jezzaqc]

furiousdriving By the way, if you ever find yourself in Pembrokeshire you’d be most welcome to have a look at my car. It’s not worth a special trip for as you already have a Mercedes-Benz C-Class of similar age to mine. I offer in case you ever wanted to compare mine with yours. Mine is C250 Sport except, the Mercedes-Benz specifications on offer in terms of trim and interior were not what I wanted. So when I ordered mine from Benz from new I had them do it my way instead so it’s a little unique. Nothing hugely out of the ordinary but still unique to the car (aka Max)

[@thomas316]

The Toyota is bullet proof, the Landrover doesn't have a roof. 🙂

[@MsBananasmel]

We had an ex army 109 in the early 90s, 70s but registered in 1984. 24v, 2 batteries. Us kids sat on the metal storage in the back. It was a great vehicle and had some kind of different suspension. Unfortunately I can't remember what was strange about it. It only had 2 seats in the front. We part ex'ed it for a 1968 Safari which is still on the road local to me. The old Land Rovers are great, yeah not luxury or comfortable but they served a purpose and still continue to do so.

[@charliemansonUK]

I was out there...i cant sayever saw one, well not that I remember as strip downs, made in theatre where not uncommon. Personally we used the 127 that has a wide rear tub and canvas tilt, probably as wide as this girl. They where V8's rate to have petrol out there so where a frequent target for fuel scroungers...a polite term for hijackers! They never got any that way as a bunch of pissed off Brits is more of a match for most idiots, even armed ones. The old girl would have been witness to things you wouldn't want seared into your memory, trust me on that one. I now suffer from Severe Complex Combat Specific PTSD from my time out there and other holiday destinations. Great video and as for speed, the roads where poor so speed was low and often enforced by our own savage RMP guys! Peace Charlie 🇬🇧

[@furiousdriving]

Hi Charlie, yes Ive read the 110s and 127s were more common, these were 90s as they fit on a plane more easily, and I cant imagine and 'scroungers' getting a warm reception! You're right, I dont think Id want those memories, thank you for all you did back then

[@Ade2bee]

Wind noise and vibration were part of the experience

[@steveh5005]

Rear is tow hook with NATO plug for towed trailers. The 2 steps are also extended bumpers With night lights off switch on dashboard. Disengaged brake lights And undrneath was a small light shinning on rear diff painted white. For following military vehicles at night in the field. The steering was always wobberly and the gearbox you can stir into gear. All bonnets were dented as soldiers would climb on top of the spare. Some 90s had fuel tanks under the driver and passenger seats. Great in a war zone! The gun mount for GPMG or 50 cal. The box on the side is for the actual ammo box holder. Behide the driver is the rack FFR fitted for radio. The airportable in the 1980s in 5Ab Bde was the SWB light landrover. They were easy to drive than the old LWB Landrover petrol. In the early 1980s we used a handed down to LR to my unit at the time. An ex SAS V8 LWB 110 civilian safari painted white. . Engine was awesome but brakes and steering dangerous. It was rejected by Hereford for Gucci Range Rovers.....

[@moran68]

Love it ! 😊 great choice for a review ☺

[@lloydvehicleconsulting]

Well, I didn't imagine that you would actually get one of these next! Don't know anything about it at all, but it does remind me of the converted Land Rover used in the back of the Hercules in The Living Daylights.

[@furiousdriving]

To be honest neither was I! Like Rick from Casablanca I dont plan more than a day ahead... It was probably the regular doorless D90 in the Living Daylights, or a movie prop stripped one

[@lloydvehicleconsulting]

@@furiousdriving, you do have an interesting time with your channel, don't you? The one in The Living Daylights was a Land Rover 90 dressed up to look like a Russian UAZ, so I don't think it was the D90, although it has no doors....

[@notroll1279]

That's the best car to take a first date out for a picknick. If she doesn't like it, you can probably even eject her and leave her behind. If she does like it, she proves to have enough sense of humour to be a keeper.

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Great for first date, last wife

[@zebratruck]

I just got a cherry 1986 exRAF 90 with the 2.5 NA. A little slow and noisy but, what a great truck!

[@devilman1976]

I had a D reg 90 a while back, ex-royal Anglian regiment. We called it Bertie cos it was as the seller said: Bertie basic. Gearboxes know how they want to go in gear and are only tricky if you try and force them. I loved driving him and put some proper miles under his belt as my first car. I miss him.

[@Blackmamba12345]

Very nice review I enjoyed that.

[@AntonyThorburn]

i love it.

[@rydermike33]

Now THAT is a proper 'off-roader'. No Chelsea Tractors here, thank you very much. Love the quote from Ronin as well. Great review Matt.

[@gosportjamie]

I suspect the large frames on the back would be radio aerial mounts. Being a long range patrol vehicle this would have carried pretty serious radio equipment, probably not just for voice transmission but likely also burst transmission equipment for sending encrypted traffic at high speed, and under the bonnet you can still see the big frame that would have held the big engine-driven generator that would have powered the communications equipment, which indicates this vehicle was originally FFR (fitted for radio,) something that people who have had ex-military vehicles will be familiar with as FFR vehicles were often cheaper to buy, but the 24 volt electrical system, rather than the standard 12 volt on production vehicles, made them expensive to maintain, particularly if the generator needed rebuilding or replacing, with conversion back to 12 volt electrics also being an expensive task though one that clearly has been carried out on this vehicle... One modification you failed to mention, maybe because you didn't notice it, is that the panel on the top of the bulkhead that covers the air vents is bullet-resistant and a bit taller than the height of the normal Land-Rover bulkhead to provide some protection for the rather exposed driver and vehicle commander should they run into trouble... A lot of the set-up on the vehicle is carried over from the famous/infamous SAS Pink Panther Land-Rovers going back to the '60s, though those vehicles were almost always long wheelbase, not always diesels as some even had V8s, and in the later examples were far more likely to turbo diesels if they were oil burners due to their requirement to be capable of carrying out hit-and-run attacks... These vehicles are, effectively, the great, great grandchildren of the vehicles that the LRDG (long range desert group) used for patrolling the deserts in North Africa during the Second World War, and were built and equipped using knowledge gained over a great many years of how to make the vehicles reliable in extremely hostile environments and, therefore, ensure crew effectiveness and survival in very arduous circumstances. You'd need to be bloody brave and self-reliant to be part of the crew of one of these in action...

[@adamtehan1936]

The Series 3 and before Army Land Rovers came in 24V or 12V depending if they were fitted for radio. This era of military Land Rover were all 12V but the radio vehicles had a completely separate 24V system that only did the radio equipment that included a massive 90amp generator under the bonnet, as you correctly stated, would have been fitted to the bracket under the bonnet. The SAS long range Land Rovers were all V8's, the reason these were diesel was because of the NATO common fuel system which meant the MOD tried to have as much equipment running diesel as was feasable and these were developed from standard specification swb Land Rovers that were modified to allow them to stack into a frame to allow 2 to be dropped at a time. These patrol vehicles were then developed from the piggyback vehicles due to a specific need identified by the pathfinder platoons. This role was later taken up by the Weapons mount installation kit (WMIK) fitted to the later Wolf Land Rover.

[@furiousdriving]

Yes I should have mentioned they borrow heavily from the Pink Panthers but on a shorter chassis. I didnt know the scuttle was bullet proof. I now think this was 24v FFR originally but was converted to 12V later. The mount on the back was for a 7.62mm machine gun - it had a pair mounted front and rear. Indeed they were pretty special people to crew these - hence it being an SAS feed!

[@gosportjamie]

@@furiousdriving Yes, the armoured panel on the scuttle above the bonnet was something that stemmed from the Pink Panthers ("Pinkies") as the engine will provide adequate protection for the crew's lower bodies but the head and the torso is rather exposed. The scuttle panel and lack of centre seat as would be standard on a civilian vehicle give the driver and vehicle commander protection from fire from ahead, as would the protection plate often fitted on the front and rear machine gun mounts, as is fairly standard with mounted machine guns. If the vehicle commander couldn't take out the hostile in front, which was pretty unlikely as the vehicle crew would be highly trained in using their weapons accurately from the moving vehicle, then there was a good chance the shooter was going to end up under the vehicle anyway as they would be travelling at a decent speed when under fire. The presence of the raised and armoured scuttle panel would, in dire circumstances, allow the driver and commander to lean towards each other in the centre of the vehicle and be low enough to have a very slim chance of getting shot... Some military historians suggest, with good reason, that the members of the LRDG and the Pathfinders may well have been generally tougher than the SAS, and it's really not hard to see why. If you got into trouble there was no chance of getting any assistance so you really needed to be capable and willing to get yourselves out of that trouble again, whatever the nature of the situation...

[@johnrobbo69]

so many memories..... thanks Matt!

[@CauliflowerMcPugg]

I love and have fond memories of the old defenders. A time when Land Rover made real off road vehicles

[@joaofarinha7953]

That's very cool. I also noticed some very cool cars in the background 😀😄

[@furiousdriving]

Lots of good stuff there!

[@farangtravels3956]

Awesome, makes me miss my old ex army 90 soft top 😭❤️

[@gosportjamie]

That's a hell of a piece of military history, and I suspect that one may well have been a test and development vehicle for the type. I believe the other LRPVs were stripped back before being disposed of, and I know that at least one became the deep submersible-capable project vehicles developed by the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy...

[@jefferysmith3930]

Love the agricultural sound of that Diesel engine

[@guy4469]

my landrover in berlin in 1988 when i was posted there was a3.5 v8 quicker than an xr3 in its day but boy did it eat fuel ..

[@bryanmower2703]

I was custodian of a 1990 LR Perentie for five years and can highly recommend owning one if you get the opportunity

[@guy4469]

the army bought a lot of light weight landrovers, in the 90s for when the wommen started joining the army they couldt turn the steering on the 90s to heavy. so they bought a batch of tichi ones .or gave them vauxhall omegas and rover sterlings ,.

[@MGBetts1]

At least you had some eye-protection!

[@aaroncable4739]

I see a possibly army land rover on the way to college Its often in two spots i think it's a project for someone but it gets more on it most times i go past its probably one of my favourite cars on that street which is funny tho I bet for a decommissioned one a heater wouldnt go a miss on this tho Matt's planning wasnt great I'll be honest driving this in 4 degrees but good content imagine the army with these in winter rap up kind of warm and you'll be fine

[@classicjalopy]

Interesting vehicle!

[@markwright3161]

15:53 Clearly it was parked up with its camo pulled over. :)

[@terrortorn]

This is what the young men of Britain need rather than skinny jeans, access to a roofless, doorless landrover.

[@DONK8118]

Not the colour of the boat house at H 😂😂😂

[@jonjones1553]

Great video! What a machine, it's the daughter of a pink panther! Thankyou for saying Hereford, not Hearford.

[@terryatkinson899]

That Bruce lad from combat dealers would probably snap up that land rover if he sees it....

[@karlos543]

Anyone know what the army use now?Can't see them using the new crappie model.

[@furiousdriving]

They use the Defender for some things but the Pinzgauer has taken over a lot, or larger more heavily armoured vehicles

[@crusinclassicslucas6218]

7:25 beep! beep!

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Where's your scarf?! Wear your scarf! Exciting choice of vehicle to review. Military history + car review. Doesn't get any more interesting. Edit: quite painful watching you drive this in the cold. Hope you do more reviews like this in comfortable weather. This is my second favorite review after the 1935 Austin 7, which nudged this out by a hair because you wore your scarf.

[@furiousdriving]

I wa concerned the scarf would affect the audio so went with the buff thing, which I was amazed worked!

[@nigelrudd670]

Nice i want one 🤓

[@joemoyle7867]

Whats the colour code?

[@Feedeee999]

i want this for daily driving

[@trabali5168]

windscreen wiper test?

[@emmajnation-emma]

Trab Ali it’s not HubNut!

[@trabali5168]

@@emmajnation-emma triangle of doom!

[@furiousdriving]

No Tea Shelf either!

[@movesky6696]

were the heater

[@furiousdriving]

no heater!

[@movesky6696]

@@furiousdriving well any a/con

[@guy4469]

and the head lights are infa red you cant see them. no body can see them . 60 down country lanes only the driver can see them with night goggles scary as a passenger .totaly pitch black

[@jinxed_jinxed_3443]

Av U gone mad son? Why didn't you test drive the XJS or Ferrari :D oh what's that you say, they wouldn't let you play with em? lol

[@furiousdriving]

Have a look at how shiny those other cars are, and look at the wet and muddy roads in the video! Ill be back there on a drier day when I wont get then dirty!

[@jinxed_jinxed_3443]

@@furiousdriving lol

[@guy4469]

heraford had a lot of v8s stubby little things light weight .

[@TheStwat]

Fanfuckingtastic,,,,

[@jasoncornell1579]

Don't u mean heeeerford De Niro was great in that film but he can't pronounce Hereford for nuts!😁

[@furiousdriving]

Thats what I said - Heerrghford!

[@jasoncornell1579]

@@furiousdriving 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@DomRivers67]

God they're terrible, best thing you can say about them is they were better than the horrid Lightweight (!) that was excreted before it

[@Jeffybonbon]

I drive a 2008 Defender what a Car they are