DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY
Named model · Series III · Original Difflocked build (Series III 109 production ran 1971-1985; SAS patrol Land Rovers documented 1968-1985 were IIA and 110 based)

SAS Series III Patrol

An original Difflocked build in the style of the SAS's open desert patrol Land Rovers, applied to a Series III 109. The SAS's documented patrol vehicles were the Series IIA 'Pink Panther' and the later 110 Desert Patrol Vehicle - no production run of Series III SAS patrol conversions is documented, though preserved Series III-pattern 109s in SAS-style desert camouflage, such as 52 GJ98, appear at military vehicle shows.

Military · UK
SAS Series III Patrol — front three-quarter render

Factory colours

Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.

History

The Special Air Service's association with open, heavily-laden patrol Land Rovers is real and well documented, but it brackets rather than includes the Series III. From 1968 Marshall of Cambridge converted 72 Series IIA 109s into the famous 'Pink Panther' deep-penetration patrol vehicles - doors, roof and windscreen removed, four fuel tanks, sand tyres and weapon mounts - which served through the Series III era until 1984-85. Their replacement jumped a generation: 33 heavy-duty One-Ten Hi-Cap-based Desert Patrol Vehicles prepared by Glover Webb, delivered to Hereford in November 1985 and used to hunt Scud launchers in Iraq's Western Desert during Operation Granby in 1991. Published accounts of SAS Mobility Troop vehicles pass directly from the IIA Pinkies to the 110 DPV with no intervening Series III patrol variant.

The Difflocked build imagines that missing chapter: a Series III-era 109 stripped to the same pattern - open body, stowage everywhere, a jerry-can drop at the rear - and finished in the two-tone sand-over-green disruptive scheme the British Army used for desert theatres rather than the Pinkies' famous rose pink. The look is grounded in surviving vehicles: the reference photograph shows 52 GJ98, a preserved 109 with Series III-pattern wing-mounted headlamps dressed as an SAS patrol vehicle in exactly this camouflage, photographed among reenactors at the War and Peace Show in 2010. Vehicles like it keep the SAS desert patrol silhouette alive on the show circuit, but this specific configuration is a Difflocked original rather than a catalogued military variant.

Imagery

Preserved 109 with Series III-pattern headlamps dressed as an SAS desert patrol vehicle, 52 GJ98, with reenactors at the War and Peace Show, 2010
Preserved 109 with Series III-pattern headlamps dressed as an SAS desert patrol vehicle, 52 GJ98, with reenactors at the War and Peace Show, 2010 AlfvanBeem · CC0 1.0 ↗

Registry record

Manufacturer
British Leyland (Land Rover) - Series III 109 donor
Manufactured
Original Difflocked build (Series III 109 production ran 1971-1985; SAS patrol Land Rovers documented 1968-1985 were IIA and 110 based)
Engine type
2.25 L petrol inline-four (standard Series III 109 units; no documented SAS Series III conversion to specify)
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Status
original game build; preserved SAS-style Series III-pattern vehicles appear at military vehicle shows

Catalogue data

Record kind
Named model
Model line
Series III
Wheels
4
Nominal wheelbase
109″

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

Catalogue references

Drive it

This vehicle is playable in the Difflocked racing game.

RACE THE SAS SERIES III PATROL ↗

Registry record updated 2026-09-09T20:23:58.658Z · status: draft