paulh

Brilliant that means the other half can drive it on her car licence aswell !!! If you saw her parking you would see why it would be useful. My "normal" car was vandalised last night by some charming person throwing a lump of concrete on it. If only I had been in the Shorland..............who says military vehicles are not practical ? Paul

Clive, do you have any idea what the weight was unladen or laden ? Paul

Strewth you are a mine of information !!!! Did you have any luck at all tracking down any photos ? very impressed Paul

The first link was tha article I was on about !!! On there is a picture of an RUC shorland and its five to one its the one I am after. If only I could read the registration !!! Quite happy to pay to cover costs of any copying of anything you have. My off forum e mail address is paul.harris@homeserve.com many thanks Paul

The main info I have at the moment is the registration which is JXI 1763. The firm from whom I am trying to secure its release have asked me not to disclose their business which is fair enough I suppose. Colour is extremely faded battleship grey. I have noticed that the sliding gun ports on the side seem to have been installed at a later date in place of the hatches which ties in with what you said. Glass etc seems original. I found one picture a while back which seemed to show the same vehicle or very similar in the markings of the "kreigsmarin". I understood that this was purely a concept to try to get sales directed at police etc. The colour was a dark ( but shiny ) grey. I suspect the vehicle I was after was pictured in Land Rover Monthly ( I think ) along with an article on Shorlands in general but the quality of the picture was not good enough to read the registration. Any info would be great. Paul

Clive, yes it is an ex RUC one and although it looks awful closer inspection shows it to be in pretty good condition. The RUC I am led to believe had very few of these and were using lots of different variants at the same time. I am not entirely sure whetehr to do it up as an RUC vehicle or as a Shorts demonstrator model. The main reason for the latter is that there were some superb paint jobs I understand which totally change the way the vehicle looked. Pimp my ride !!! I had to find a vehicle that could be used " to go to Tesco " although I see no problem with taking something with tracks and a turret to get the weekly shopping. I ignored this "suggestion" at my peril........ Paul

Hello all, I hope you can help me !! After a considerable period of searching and pleading with powers that be ( and my other half ) I may be about to acquire a Shorland SB401 in need of ( ahem ) a little tlc. My problem is that it seems that Clive Elliots excellent Shoralnd website is no more and information just does not seem to exist. I am trying to get hold of ANY photos of SB401's either in service in Ireland or when they were demonstated in some fantastic paint jobs at the various military shows in the 80's. Does anybody have any pictures they could share to assist in the rebuild or know of any service manuals. An ex RUC officer said the manual was "get in , drive " the end. I cannot as yet show any pictures or give any further details as I am still negotiating for the vehicles release. On another note I recently took a trip to France with the intention of purchasing an armoured vehicle over there. The French authorities are quite willing to help but traders on the ground are not as there is "too much paperwork" involved. All military equipment can now be classed as "material of war" and requires state approval to export or sale. Strictly speaking this can be anything capable of transporting weaponry even if it is not mounted directly to it. Beware !!!! Paul