RUC Shenzi Armoured Land Rover
RUC in-house armoured Land Rover of the kind developed by the force's own Research and Development Establishment — the 1962–64 prototype line that became the Shorland, and later the experimental Shenzi and Simba of the early 1980s with their angular purpose-built rear bodies — modelled in the form of the PSNI Museum's 1964 prototype photograph the queue supplied.
History
The Royal Ulster Constabulary designed its own armoured Land Rovers. Following a Home Office meeting in November 1961 an in-house RUC team drew up the first fully armoured Land Rover in 1962; a mild-steel prototype was finished by January 1963 and an armoured, three-man, turreted prototype on a Series IIA chassis followed in 1964 (registration 4471 AZ in the PSNI Museum photograph reproduced by Joint-Forces.com). After acceptance the design went into production with Short Brothers of Belfast as the Shorland Armoured Car, used by the RUC from 1966. Two decades later, while the force was adopting Hotspur-bodied Land Rovers and buying up Shorland SB401s, the RUC's Research and Development Establishment built a small number of experimental armoured Land Rovers, the Shenzi and the Simba, on utility chassis to improve crew protection against ballistic and blast threats; their sharply angled, sloping rear armour made them easy to tell from the rounded Tangi. Only a handful entered service, but they mark the transition between the Hotspur era and the purpose-built Tangi fleet.
The registry's model follows the queue's reference photograph — the 1964 prototype — as directed: the Shorland Mk1 hull with headlamps set low in the wing fronts, no lamp guards, a louvred grille panel and two large top-hinged screen flaps propped open. It carries the armoured and turret-weapon perks in the game.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Series IIA 109-inch chassis)
- Manufactured
- 1964 prototype; Shenzi/Simba experiments before 1985
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Short Brothers ↗Royal Ulster Constabulary Research and Development Establishment (RADE); production Shorlands by Short Brothers
- Engine type
- Rover 2.25 L petrol (Series IIA; not stated in the source)
- Production run
- Small batch; count unknown
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- retired
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series IIA
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 109″
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 ↗ — Joint-Forces.com (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 2026-09-11T14:34:13.417Z · status: researched