The six-wheeled armoured personnel carrier of the FV600 family, built from 1952 to 1976: 11 tonnes, 16 mm of rolled homogeneous armour, a Rolls-Royce B80 Mk 3A or Mk 6A of 160 hp, 72 km/h on the road and 32 across country, 400 km of range, two crew and up to nine men.
MODEL LINEFV600BUILT BYAlvis, CoventryPRODUCED1952–76OPERATED INUnited Kingdom, South Africa, JordanPRODUCTIONNot publishedLAYOUT6 wheels
The record
The Saracen shared its chassis with the Saladin armoured car, the Salamander crash truck and the Stalwart load carrier, though the engine, transmission and brakes differed considerably between them. It served in the Malayan Emergency, Aden, Northern Ireland, the Yom Kippur War and the Sri Lankan civil war, and was exported widely — 280 ordered by South Africa between 1953 and 1956, 135 to Kuwait, 120 to Jordan, 100 to Lebanon and 30 to Australia. The Royal Hong Kong Police ran fourteen until 1988.
ENGINERolls-Royce B80 Mk 3A or Mk 6A petrol eight, 160 hpRolls-Royce B80
PRODUCTION RUNNot published
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom, South Africa, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Australia
STATUSout of production; still in secondary service in some countries
RECORD KINDBase model
MODEL LINEFV600
FAMILYFV600
WHEELS6
BODY STYLEArmoured personnel carrier
VARIANTS1
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Body styles & colours
Factory colours
Deep Bronze Green
Light Stone
Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.
Imagery
FV603 Saracen six-wheeled armoured personnel carrier designed and produced by AlvisPhil DeFer · CC BY 2.0 ↗
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