Cheshire Police Range Rover

History

Cheshire Constabulary was only the second UK police force to buy the original Range Rover, taking five in 1971 for its motorway patrol unit, and the Range Rover went on to become the archetypal British motorway patrol car: fast, commanding, and able to carry the cones, signs, lamps and rescue kit a motorway incident demands. Cheshire stayed loyal to the model through all of its first three generations.

The third-generation L322, developed under BMW ownership and built from 2001 to 2012, was the last Range Rover to serve the force. DK54 HSU, a 2004 example with the 4.4-litre V8 and six-speed automatic gearbox, patrolled Cheshire's motorways until its retirement in 2007. A serving officer who had regularly driven it campaigned for its preservation as an ambassador for road-safety campaigns and for the Cheshire Police Force Museum, keeping it exactly in its in-service state complete with its full complement of motorway emergency equipment; it now resides in the Dunsfold Collection alongside the force's last classic Range Rover, the armoured armed-response vehicle M718 AFM.

Cheshire was not alone: other forces ran L322s in the standard white base with yellow-and-blue Battenburg markings, among them Scotland's Northern Constabulary, whose example is pictured at the force's Inverness headquarters, and Merseyside Police, whose 2007 car PN57 USY - described as the force's last ever Range Rover - survived into preservation and restoration. As leasing economics and newer 4x4s took over motorway fleets in the late 2000s, the L322 closed an era of police Range Rovers stretching back to 1970.

Imagery

Registry record

Manufacturer

Land Rover

Manufactured

L322 built 2001-2012; Cheshire's DK54 HSU registered 2004, retired 2007

Engine type

4.4 L V8 petrol, 6-speed automatic (preserved Cheshire example)

Production run

small numbers per force across UK motorway patrol fleets

Current owner

The Dunsfold Collection (Cheshire example DK54 HSU) ↗

Country of origin

United Kingdom

Status

retired from police service; Cheshire's DK54 HSU preserved

Catalogue data

Record kind

Named model

Model line

L322

Wheels

4

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

• 2004 Range Rover Cheshire Constabulary ↗ — The Dunsfold Collection (accessed 2026-09-09)
• 1995 Range Rover armoured Armed Response Vehicle (Cheshire Constabulary M718 AFM; force's Range Rover history from 1971) ↗ — The Dunsfold Collection (accessed 2026-09-09)
• Merseyside Police last ever Range Rover 2007 L322 - PN57 USY - final stages of restoration, August 2023 ↗ — Flickr (accessed 2026-09-09)
• File:Northern Constabulary Range rover at Police Headquarters Inverness Scotland.jpg ↗ — Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2026-09-09)