G'day Richard,
Having recently moved address I have now got my computer back on line and
able to review your original mail to the club forum, also the REMLR website.
As there are a number of inaccuracies, I have replied with the info' we know
in the club to hopefully correct them.
In your original mail your were enquiring whether BAC supplied the Rapier
missile system to other recipients and how many they received? Land-Rover
production ledgers show BAC, Stevenage, took delivery of 38 959 Series 12V
LHD Export G/S vehicles - 6 in gloss bronze green finish and 32 in light
matt stone finish also 58 962 Series 24V RHD Export G/S vehicles - 8 in
gloss bronze green finish and 50 in olive drab semi gloss finish and finally
40 964 Series 24V LHD Export vehicles - 2 in gloss bronze green and 38 in
light matt stone finish. So in total BAC had 38 12V and 98 24V vehicles from
Land-Rover and supplied these fitted with Beeswing, Blowfire and Rapier
missile systems, etc.
As BAC, Marshalls of Cambridge and Pilcher Greene did not keep an archive of
the vehicles they used or converted, we have found it difficult to get
precise information on the vehicles. The database we started has helped a
lot but is only as good as the info' we can glean. With the 962 Series, 34
vehicles, 96200001A - 96200034A, in gloss bronze green finish were
dispatched to the Crown Agents Brunei! These were followed by 30 vehicles,
96200035A - 96200064A, in olive drab semi gloss, then 8 vehicles,
96200065A - 96200072A, in gloss bronze green and a final batch of 20
vehicles, 96200073A - 96200092A, again in olive drab semi gloss were all
delivered to BAC from 14/09/1977 to 09/08/1978! We were led to believe the
BAC olive drab vehicles were originally used in Turkey by the USAF and RAF
on peace keeping duties, also the 8 bronze green vehicles served with the
RAF on 6 Wing, by people who worked at BAC?? However since then, one of the
gloss bronze green vehicles, 96200065A, was found in the British Army
wearing the VRN 03KA69 and is now in Kenya also, due to Rod Genn supplying
chassis numbers, we learnt the 2 batches of olive drab vehicles served with
the Australian Army as 50 Rapier launch vehicles. We are unable to find any
other vehicles that would have been likely to serve with the Australian Army
in this or other role, even though Rod and John Cummins are adamant there
were more!
Incidentally, all Rapier lanching vehicles (FUT's) were 24V! The British
Army used the Blindfire radar rapier guidance system and also had 12V
vehicles (TRT's), fitted with Rapier storage racks in the rear, for towing
the radar tracking or missile reload trailers!
The REMLR website quoted 2669 vehicles built from 1972 to 1978. This isn't
true, as 3 vehicles (95600983A, 95900055A & 95900411A) weren't built also 1
vehicle (96400395A) caught fire at the factory and was written off. So the
true total built was 2665 between 1972 and 1978!!
The question of prototypes and pre-production is even more confusing, as
there are few surviving records and Land-Rover were being starved of money
by British Leyland, so Norman Busby, the Project Engineer, had
to fiddle things to get the design tested and completed. Luckily Norman
saved some items, which formed the basis of the club archive, when he
helped start the club in 1988 but unfortunately he died in 2005 so we can no
longer count on his knowledge. However his info', together with archive
photos, allowed us to piece together how the design evolved prior to the
start of the 1972 production ledgers. The Land-Rover prototype, 101/1, build
started at the beginning of February 1968 and finished in mid May 1968,
followed by 5 others, 101/2 VRN 01SP13, 101/3 VRN 01SP14, 101/4 VRN 01SP15,
101/5 VRN 01SP16 and 101/6 VRN 01SP17, for an MVEE contract! All these
vehicles were RHD with 3 litre 6 cylinder engines. Finally in phase 1, a 7th
prototype 101/7 was built for Rover Australia with a 3.6 litre Ford Falcon
engine and completed in December 1968. This was followed in 1969 with the V8
prototype, 101-FC-8, which also had an improved cab and was given the VRN
HXC805H, also 101/1 was rebuilt with a V8 engine and improved cab. The
design continued evolving by rebuiding and testing 101/1 and HXC805H, which
became 101-FC-8a, then finally 101-FC-8b, similar to a pre-production
vehicle. The final true prototype, 101-FC-8c, VRN VXC754K was built in
August 1971 and was basically a pre-production vehicle!
The total number of prototypes were 6 snub nosed 6 pots + 1 snub nosed
Falcon powered + HXC805H + VXC754K = 9 vehicles!
The pre-production vehicle build started 24/02/1972 with the completion of
96400001A, VRN BXC676L for the Engineering Dept. A total of 37 vehicles were
built, 25 for the MVEE to assess with various military units and 12 for
Norman to test/fine tune the design. All of them had subtle differences,
with the last few becoming closer to a production version and, as they
weren't built in chassis number order, the final 37th pre-production vehicle
96400007A, JWK748N, was completed for Government Sales (Norman) on
13/04/1973.
Officially prodution commenced on 25/11/1975 with the completion of 4
vehicles, 95600021A - 24A, for the 1975 Joint Services Expedition! The last
of the 2628 production vehicles, 96400467A, was completed on 14/06/1978 for
B.L., Germany.
As far as we know, there were no CKD versions of the 101FC built!
Finally, I was intrigued by your website photos, some of which I haven't
seen before. I suspect (1) shows 96400001A with a powered trailer, but I
have seen this VRN, BXC676K, on other vehicles.Photo (2) shows 101/2, VRN
01SP13, with its LH petrol tank! Photo (3) shows the 1st prototype, 101/1,
with its RH petrol tank and circular bridge plate on the front bumper! Photo
(4) shows the front of 101/1 with the bridge plate! Photo (5) is, I suspect,
101/2 with LH tank? Photo (6) is, I suspect, 101/1 with RH tank?
Hope this hasn't bored you to tears.
Regards, Les Adams.
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