GNR Defender 110 Patrulha
A Defender 110 station wagon of Portugal's Guarda Nacional Republicana, the gendarmerie that polices the 94 per cent of the country outside the cities: dark green with a white roof lettered GUARDA NACIONAL REPUBLICANA, a white-over-bright-green waist stripe, the GNR crest on the rear quarter, white steel wheels and a blue light bar over the windscreen.
History
The Guarda Nacional Republicana was founded in 1911 as Portugal's national gendarmerie: a military force under military law, headquartered at the Quartel do Carmo in Lisbon, that carries out preventive policing and highway patrol across some 94 per cent of the national territory — the countryside, small towns, borders and coast that the civilian Polícia de Segurança Pública does not cover. That beat is why the force has run hundreds of Land Rover Defenders and Nissan Patrols alongside its saloon patrol cars: much of it is unmade track, and a rural post needs something that can carry a section of guards off the road.
The Defenders wear the GNR's own scheme, which this model reproduces from photographs taken in the Algarve in April 2009: dark green bodywork under a white roof, the force's full name lettered in green along the white roof side above the windows, a bright green stripe edged in white along the waist, the GNR crest on the rear quarter panel, plain white steel wheels, a spare on the rear door and a blue light bar mounted at the front of the roof. The photographer noted that the Land Rovers and Patrols were 'already somewhat old' by 2009 but 'excellent cross-country with good carrying capacity'. The photographs show both a 110 station wagon at a roadside checkpoint and a 90 hard top parked at a post at Vila Real de Santo António; the 110, the row's base model, is what is modelled here. Which generation of Defender, its engine and how many the GNR bought are not stated in the source, so those figures are left open.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover
- Manufactured
- Defender 110 station wagon; photographed in service April 2009, build date not recorded
- Engine type
- Not recorded in the source (Defender 110 station wagon of the Tdi/Td5 era by appearance)
- Production run
- Unknown — the GNR is recorded as operating hundreds of Defenders
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- Portugal
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 110″
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.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- GNR — Guarda Nacional Republicana (Land Rover Defender and Nissan Patrol off-roaders, April 2009; Defender 110 at a highway checkpoint, April 2009) ↗ — Empire Emergencias (accessed 2026-09-11)
- National Republican Guard (Portugal) — founded 1911; gendarmerie under military law; polices 94% of the territory; fleet includes hundreds of Land Rover Defenders and Nissan Patrols ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.empire-emergencias.es/gnr.html https://www.empire-emergencias.es/gnr.html ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T05:21:01.849Z · status: researched