History
The histories of each brand in the registry: its vehicles in each working role, written from the records in the collection.
Histories of the Land Rover in each of its working roles — police, fire, rescue, ambulance, military and expedition use — from the first Series I conversions of the early 1950s to the last Defenders, written from the vehicles in the registry.
LAND ROVER HISTORY →Snow Tracs went to Antarctic research organisations including ANARE, to NATO forces and the Royal Marines, and to utilities across North America.
AKTIV HISTORY →Alvis vehicles served the British Army from 1952 to the present day and more than twenty other countries besides: the Saracen in Malaya, Aden and Northern Ireland, the Saladin still on strength in five armies in 2024, the Salamander with the RAF until 1978, the Stalwart until 1993, and the CVR(T) family in the Falklands, the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.
ALVIS HISTORY →AM General’s Humvee has been the American army’s light vehicle since 1985 — the Gulf War, Somalia, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan — and serves some sixty allied armies; the company also built the Army’s M939 five-ton trucks in 1982–87 and builds the JLTV A2 today.
AM GENERAL HISTORY →ARO’s vehicles worked where roads did not: the M461 with the Romanian army and in export fleets across Asia, Africa and Latin America from 1965, the 24 Series in some 110 countries and in the military Dragon, and the 10 Series as a cheap utility in western Europe.
ARO HISTORY →Arquus's vehicles are French army vehicles and, in large numbers, other armies' too: around 5,000 VABs in more than forty countries, over 12,000 ACMATs in 42 nations, and about 2,600 VBLs.
ARQUUS HISTORY →The Champ served the British Army from 1951 until its cost and complexity ended it; the Gipsy worked for the General Post Office, fire brigades and farms from 1958 and was assembled in New Zealand, Australia and Colombia until 1968.
AUSTIN HISTORY →BMC's protected vehicles serve the Turkish army, gendarmerie and police, and have been exported to Pakistan, Tunisia, Libya, Ukraine, Qatar, Turkmenistan and others.
BMC HISTORY →Borgward built for two German armies: the standard three-tonne truck of the war, and the Bundeswehr's first light four-wheel drive ten years later.
BORGWARD HISTORY →Bowler's cars worked in competition above all — a factory Dakar team from 2000, four Nemeses in the first South American Dakar, one-make Defender series from 2014 — and twice as military vehicles: the Supacat Wildcat of 2011 and the CSP Rapid Intervention Vehicle of 2017.
BOWLER HISTORY →Chevrolet four-wheel drives worked the ranches and oilfields as NAPCO conversions from 1955 and factory K-series from 1960, served the US Army as the 70,000 CUCV trucks and Blazers of 1983–87, and police America as the Tahoe since 1997.
CHEVROLET HISTORY →Citroën half-tracks made the first motor crossing of the Sahara in 1922–23, crossed Africa in the Croisière Noire of 1924–25 and Asia in the Croisière Jaune of 1931–32, went to the Antarctic with Byrd and to northern Canada with Bedaux in 1934, and towed the French artillery into 1940. Later four-wheel drives served the Spanish Guardia Civil, French forces overseas, utilities and fire brigades, and won the Dakar four times.
CITROËN HISTORY →Cournils worked on the hill farms of the Massif Central and, after 1965, the Basque Country, for the Hygiene Department, police and customs in the 1960s and for EDF, the police and the forestry and public-works services in the 1980s. French Cournils ran in the Paris–Dakar from 1979. The Portuguese licence-built vehicles are under UMM.
COURNIL HISTORY →Cushman's four-wheel-drive and tracked vehicles worked in civilian hands: the Trackster for sportsmen, electric utilities, government agencies, ranches and universities in the 1970s, and the 1600XD and Hauler 4x4 for grounds, construction and council fleets since 2011.
CUSHMAN HISTORY →Dacia 4×4s at work: the four-wheel-drive Pick-Up on Romanian farms and building sites in 1999–2006, the Duster Pick-Up conversions built by Romturingia for OMV Petrom's oilfields from 2014 and for general sale from 2020, and 886 Dusters bought by the Romanian Ministry of National Defence in 2015–21.
DACIA HISTORY →Daihatsu’s Taft, Rugger and Rocky worked the farms and forests of Japan, the stations of Australia, British agriculture (the Fourtrak) and the plantations of Indonesia between 1974 and 2007.
DAIHATSU HISTORY →Everything the Coventry Daimler built for the registry was military: the Dingo with British and Commonwealth forces from 1939 to 1974, the 2-pounder Armoured Car from mid-1941, and the Ferret from 1952 until British service ended in 1991 — and in other armies for decades after that.
DAIMLER HISTORY →The VLR served the French army from 1951, in Indochina and North Africa, and was replaced within a decade by the licence-built Jeep — the Hotchkiss M201 — on grounds of simplicity rather than capability.
DELAHAYE HISTORY →The Munga served the Bundeswehr from 1956 and the Royal Netherlands Army in some 2,000 vehicles, many of which were sold on to Britain in the late 1970s. In civilian hands it worked German farms and forests, and it was built in Brazil as the Candango.
DKW HISTORY →The Campagnola served the Italian Army from 1951 to the 2000s and the Yugoslav army through Zastava, and worked for Italy’s utilities, forestry corps and the Vatican; the Panda 4x4 was the mountain car of the Alps and the Carabinieri from 1983 to 2022.
FIAT HISTORY →Ford’s four-wheel drives went to war first — Marmon-Herrington conversions for the US and Belgian armies from 1936, 277,000 GPW Jeeps and the GPA amphibian in 1942–45, the M151 MUTT of 1959–82 with more than 100 armies — and to work with the factory F-Series 4x4 of 1959: the trucks of American ranches, utilities, forest services and fire departments, the Bronco of the Forest Service and Border Patrol, the Explorer and Expedition of police departments, and the Ranger T6 and Everest of mines, farms and aid agencies on four continents.
FORD HISTORY →GAZ’s four-wheel drives were the Red Army’s: the GAZ-61 staff cars of the marshals, the GAZ-64 and 67 command cars and gun tractors of 1941–45 and Korea, and the GAZ-69 of 1953 that equipped the Soviet Army, the Warsaw Pact and the Middle East’s armies for twenty years, with the M-72 Pobeda 4x4 for the countryside’s officials.
GAZ HISTORY →GKN Sankey's vehicles are British Army vehicles: the FV432 that carried the infantry from 1963 and still does as the Bulldog, and the Saxon that carried them on wheels from 1984 to 2012.
GKN SANKEY HISTORY →Guy's all-wheel-drive vehicles served the British Army from the late 1920s to the end of the Second World War: six-wheelers for the War Office and the Indian government, Quad-Ant tractors with the Royal Artillery in France, North Africa and Italy, the Guy Armoured Car in France in 1940 and on anti-invasion duty in Britain, and Lizard command vehicles with 7th Armoured Division; Denmark took Quad-Ants after the war.
GUY MOTORS HISTORY →Humber’s four-wheel drives served Britain from 1940 to the early 1990s: the FWD Box as a staff car and ambulance, the Armoured Car in North Africa and Burma and afterwards with Canada, India and Portugal, and the Pig with the Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1958 and the Army in Northern Ireland from the 1970s.
HUMBER HISTORY →International’s four-wheel drives worked rather than played: the Travelall and light-line 4x4s of farms, utilities, road crews and the Forest Service from 1956, and the Scout of rural mail carriers, ranchers, snow-plough contractors and the Forest Service from 1961 — with the Baja-racing Scouts and Monteverdi’s Swiss Safari as the exceptions.
INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER HISTORY →Isuzu’s four-wheel drives are working vehicles: the Faster and its Chevrolet and Holden badges, the Trooper and Jackaroo on Australian farms, and the D-Max and MU-X with the aid, utility and mining trades of Asia, Africa and Australia.
ISUZU HISTORY →The Daily 4x4 has been Europe’s off-road light commercial since 1984 — fire, mountain rescue, utilities and expedition campers — while the VM 90 and LMV Lince served the Italian Army and a dozen others, and the Massif briefly carried the Land Rover Series line at Linares.
IVECO HISTORY →The Jeep began as the US Army’s quarter-ton reconnaissance car of 1941: about 640,000 Willys MBs and Ford GPWs by 1945, nearly 30 per cent of them to Britain and the Soviet Union, and the M38 and M38A1 after them in Korea and NATO. The civilian CJ-2A of 1945 went to farms with a power take-off; the CJs, Forward Controls and J-trucks worked for utilities, forest and park services and fire departments; Hotchkiss, Mahindra, Mitsubishi, VIASA, Ford do Brasil and Kia built Jeeps for their own armies and roads; and the Cherokee and Wrangler serve police departments, the Border Patrol and rescue teams.
JEEP HISTORY →Kamaz's four-wheel and six-wheel drives are the Russian army's ordinary trucks and, since 2014, its mine-protected carriers; the same two-axle chassis carries the Dakar trucks.
KAMAZ HISTORY →The Protze was a military vehicle and nothing else: with the Wehrmacht from 1934 towing anti-tank guns, carrying men, laying telephone line and running searchlight generators, and with Hungary, Latvia and Poland besides.
KRUPP HISTORY →The Type 95 was the Imperial Japanese Army's reconnaissance car from 1936, in China and across the Pacific until 1944 — and the first purpose-designed four-wheel-drive scout car of its kind anywhere.
KUROGANE HISTORY →The Niva was built for Soviet rural work — vets, foresters, agronomists — and has since served Siberian gas fields in Bronto form, Antarctic stations, a Tibetan altitude record and the Paris–Dakar.
LADA HISTORY →Lamborghini's one attempt at a military vehicle ended in a lawsuit and a bankruptcy; the LM002 that came out of it was sold to civilians, and to Saudi Arabia.
LAMBORGHINI HISTORY →Linns worked rather than fought: freight on Canadian power schemes, logging, and the snow ploughs that kept American roads open from about 1920.
LINN HISTORY →The 967 TPK served Soviet airborne units from 1961 as an amphibious, parachute-droppable ammunition and casualty carrier; the 969 Volyn served Soviet and Ukrainian country life from 1966 to 2002.
LUAZ HISTORY →Mahindra’s Jeeps were India’s farm, taxi and police vehicles for sixty years, and its own Scorpio has been the government four-wheel drive since 2002; the Thar carries the Willys shape into the present.
MAHINDRA HISTORY →The Unimog went from German farms in 1948 to the French Army and Bundeswehr as the 404 S, to municipalities, railways, fire brigades and the expedition trade, and to armies on every continent as the U 1300 L and UHN; the G-Class was built for the Bundeswehr’s and the Shah’s requirement of 1972 and served as the Wolf, the Swiss Puch G, the French Peugeot P4 and the Canadian and Australian G-Wagens, and worked for forestry, utilities and aid agencies before the W463 made it a luxury car.
MERCEDES-BENZ HISTORY →Mitsubishi’s four-wheel drives began with licence-built Jeeps for the Japanese police and forestry service in 1952 and the JGSDF’s Type 73; the Pajero worked and won the Dakar twelve times, and the L200 and Pajero Sport are the aid, utility and farm vehicles of the line today.
MITSUBISHI HISTORY →Everything here is artillery. The CDSW towed the 18-pounder and the 4.5-inch howitzer from the early 1930s; the C8 Quad towed the 25-pounder and then the 17-pounder from 1939 to 1945 and carried the crew and the ammunition with it; and the C9B mounted the 40 mm Bofors on the vehicle itself.
MORRIS COMMERCIAL HISTORY →The 410 and 411 were built for agricultural repair teams and sold to the countryside: 9,095 four-wheel-drive family cars between 1957 and 1961, and nothing to replace them when they stopped.
MOSKVITCH HISTORY →Everything Mowag builds is military. The T1 and MR 8 established the company with the Swiss Army and the West German border guard; the Duro and Eagle serve Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Venezuela; and the Piranha, through its licensees, equips armies from Canada to Australia to the United States.
MOWAG HISTORY →The Patrol has worked since 1951 — Japanese forestry and police, Australian stations, African and Gulf fleets — and the Y61 became the United Nations’ and many armies’ light vehicle, kept in production to 2024 because nothing simpler replaced it.
NISSAN HISTORY →Every registry Oshkosh but the Striker was built to a US military order: the MTVR with the Marines from 2001, the M-ATV in Afghanistan from 2009, the FMTV from 2010 and the JLTV from 2016, with export fleets from the UAE to Lithuania.
OSHKOSH HISTORY →The P4 was the French Army’s light vehicle for nearly forty years, and the Dangel Peugeots have worked French public service and African roads since 1980 — the 504 pick-up and break, the 505 break and the Partner, Expert and Boxer vans.
PEUGEOT HISTORY →SandCats serve seventeen or more countries, as army patrol vehicles, missile carriers, ambulances and police vehicles; Plasan's armour serves in a great many more vehicles built by other people.
PLASAN HISTORY →Dodge’s four-wheel drives fought the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam as the WC series and the M37, and worked American farms and oilfields as the Power Wagon from 1946 and the Cummins-engined W-series and Rams since 1989.
RAM / DODGE HISTORY →The RB44 served the British Army from 1992 to 2010, with a two-and-a-half-year gap while its brakes were put right, and a small batch went to the Defence Fire Service. The Pegasus chassis carried Chubb crash tenders at British and export airfields from 1975.
REYNOLDS BOUGHTON HISTORY →SAMIL trucks carried the South African Defence Force through the Border War in South West Africa and Angola — supply convoys under Kwêvoël mine-protected cabs, the G5 gun tractors, the Ystervark anti-aircraft guns — and the SANDF after it. Surplus SAMILs now work on mines, farms, building sites and game reserves.
SAMIL HISTORY →SHERPs work where there is no ground worth the name: utilities and powerlines, oil and gas, drilling and pipelines, mining, forestry, search and rescue, humanitarian work and scientific expeditions. The Ark was drawn for exactly those jobs at a larger scale, and the N 1200 for them inside the Arctic Circle.
SHERP HISTORY →Škoda's four-wheel drives served two armies: the Wehrmacht, which took five all-wheel-drive Superb prototypes out of some 1,630 military Superbs from occupied Bohemia, and the Czechoslovak army, which took every one of the fewer than fifty Babetas.
ŠKODA HISTORY →The Haflinger and Pinzgauer were built for armies — the Austrian Bundesheer’s mountain infantry from 1959 and the Austrian and Swiss forces’ truck requirements of the 1960s — and served the Swiss Army (about 3,500 Pinzgauers), the Australian Army and the Royal Navy, and the British Army as its Light Gun tractor and ambulance from the 1990s until the Vector’s failure in Helmand ended the line in 2009.
STEYR-DAIMLER-PUCH HISTORY →Stonefields worked for British government establishments, airfield fire services in the Scottish islands, utilities, a police force and a film and television fleet; the military 4x4 was endorsed as a 105 mm Light Gun tractor in 1979 but the British Army placed no large order.
STONEFIELD HISTORY →Supacat's vehicles are British Army vehicles: the ATMP with the airborne forces since 1988, and the Jackal and Coyote in Afghanistan from 2008.
SUPACAT HISTORY →Suzuki’s small 4x4s work where bigger vehicles cannot: Japanese farms and forests since 1970, Australian stations as the Sierra, Spain as the Santana-built Samurai, and India as the Maruti Gypsy of the army, the police and the rally championship from 1985 to 2019.
SUZUKI HISTORY →Toyota’s four-wheel drive was built for Japan’s National Police Reserve in 1951, patrolled for the National Police Agency, and went abroad to governments first: Pakistan in 1954, Saudi Arabia in 1955, Venezuela in 1956, Brazil (assembled there from 1959) and Australia (July 1959). Since then the Land Cruiser has been the four-wheel drive of armies, police forces, oil companies, the United Nations and the aid agencies across the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Australian outback; the Hilux is their pick-up.
TOYOTA HISTORY →Tucker's expedition record is the strongest of any tracked maker: four Sno-Cats, or three, crossed Antarctica with Fuchs in 1955–58 and were the first land vehicles to reach the South Pole.
TUCKER SNO-CAT HISTORY →Ulyanovsk’s four-wheel drives went first to the Soviet Army — the GAZ-69 from 1954, the 450 and 452 ambulances and vans from 1958, the portal-axle 469 of 1971 that equipped the Warsaw Pact and more than 80 armies — and to the rural services of the Soviet Union: the Tabletka ambulance, the farm truck, the works minibus, the forestry and militia 469B. The Hunter, Bukhanka and Patriot serve the Russian forces, police, hospitals and hunters today.
UAZ HISTORY →UMMs served the Portuguese Army and GNR from 1978, the Dutch Army from 1986, the Angolan Army from 1990 and the French Gendarmerie in Heuliez-built form, and went abroad with Portuguese peacekeepers to Mozambique in 1993. Fire brigades and utilities in Portugal and France used them, and UMM teams ran the Paris–Dakar from 1982. The French originals are under Cournil.
UMM HISTORY →Vickers-Armstrongs' carriers served from 1928 into the 1960s: Carden-Loyds with the British Army and, licence-built, in Italy, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia; Bren and Scout carriers with the British Expeditionary Force in 1939–40; and Universal Carriers in every theatre of the Second World War with British, Commonwealth, Polish, Free French and Soviet forces, then with Argentina, West Germany, Israel, Ireland, Switzerland and others after it.
VICKERS-ARMSTRONGS HISTORY →Volkswagen’s four-wheel drives have worked for armies since 1941 — the Schwimmwagen and Kommandeurswagen with the Wehrmacht, the Iltis with the Bundeswehr, Canada and Belgium — and for mountain and rural operators since 1984 in Syncro form. Three Dakar wins in a row for the Race Touareg, and one before that, in 1980, for an Iltis.
VOLKSWAGEN HISTORY →Every Volvo four-wheel drive was built for the Swedish Army: the TP21 radio car of 1953, the Laplander of 1959–70 that Norway assembled to NATO standard and Saudi Arabia took to the desert, and the C303, C304 and C306 of 1974–2000 that also served Malaysia; their surplus supplies the expedition and collector market today.
VOLVO HISTORY →White's vehicles are almost entirely military: scout cars and half-tracks that went wherever Lend-Lease went, and the six-ton trucks the engineers built bridges from.
WHITE HISTORY →The AR series was the Yugoslav People's Army's standard light truck for two decades and stayed in service, with the successor armies and police, into the 1990s.
ZASTAVA HISTORY →