RUC Hotspur Armoured Land Rover
An RUC Hotspur armoured Land Rover, IXI 8636: a Stage 1 V8-powered Series III 109 hard top armoured in the Royal Ulster Constabulary's own workshops with the Hotspur kit — bolted ballistic steel plates over the sides and doors, a second armoured roof, armoured rear doors and mesh over screen, grille and lamps — in RUC grey, photographed at Grosvenor Road station, Belfast, in 1988.
History
The RUC's first armoured Land Rovers were the Shorland armoured cars of the 1960s; when the Troubles brought petrol bombs and gunfire to the streets of Belfast in 1969 the force needed protected patrol vehicles in quantity. In the mid-1970s, alongside three Shorts SB301 armoured personnel vehicles, the RUC designed its own conversion: an armoured steel kit, made in Wales, that its workshops could bolt onto a commercial Series III 109 chassis. The kit was called Hotspur after the type of armour plate, and Hotspurs were built in bulk in the late 1970s. When the Series III chassis wore out, around a hundred Hotspur bodies were transplanted onto the coil-sprung One-Ten and became the Tangi.
Bob Morrison photographed this one, IXI 8636, with a Stage 1 V8 companion CXI 2389, inside Grosvenor Road police station in 1988: a hard-top 109 with the Stage 1's flush V8 front, in RUC grey, with flat ballistic plates bolted over the doors and body sides, small vision windows in the rear body, a second armoured roof standing off the original on spacers, armoured rear doors with vision slots, wire mesh guards over the windscreen, grille and headlamps, and a mesh-fronted guard box ahead of the bumper against petrol bombs. The registry's model, as the review asked, is built from its Tangi — the same Hotspur body — recoloured to RUC grey without the police markings, with the guard skirt and wing mirrors of the 1988 photograph; the number of Hotspurs built and this vehicle's fate are not recorded in the source.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Hotspur Armoured Products ↗Land Rover (Series III / Stage 1 V8 109); Hotspur armour kit fitted by RUC workshops
- Manufactured
- Late 1970s–early 1980s conversions; photographed 1988
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Hotspur Armoured Products ↗, RUC Vehicle Engineering, Seapark ↗Hotspur armour kit, made in Wales
- Engine type
- 3.5 L Rover V8 petrol (Stage 1) on this example; 2.25 L fours on others
- Production run
- Produced in bulk in the late 1970s; around 100 kits later transplanted to One-Tens as Tangis
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series III
- 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
- Police Armoured Land Rovers ~ Ulster Album — RUC SIII Hotspur and early One-Ten Tangi at Grosvenor Road, Belfast, 1988; the Hotspur armoured steel kit produced in Wales and fitted by RUC workshops ↗ — Joint Forces News (Bob Morrison) (accessed 2026-09-11)
- Land Rover Tangi — Hotspur predecessor and Tangi conversion ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.joint-forces.com/land-rovers/42484-police-armoured-land-rovers-ulster-album https://www.joint-forces.com/land-rovers/42484-police-armoured-land-rovers-ulster-album ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T08:32:41.282Z · status: researched