Land Master
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Landmaster (disambiguation).
The Land Master is the name of a civilian all-terrain utility vehicle produced in the late 1970s and early 1980's as a contender to the Land Rover. Many of its features were incorporated into the Land Rover Defender introduced some years later.
It is now a very rare vehicle. It was tested by the British Army and was actually used by the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. Money was promised by the Ministry of Defence but the deal fell through. Eventually, the rights to the Land Master were sold to a company called C.K. Farnworth of Crumlin, South Wales.
The prototype vehicles were made at Trelavour Road Garage, St. Dennis, Cornwall, and were based on Dodge pickup truck parts.
The chassis was made of tubular steel so that when it went over bumps and steep angles, dirt on top of the chassis rails would fall off, unlike Land Rovers.
Surviving vehicles are very rare. At least one Land Master is still on the road in use in Kent, England, and another is kept by the original owners at St. Dennis.
Engines available included a 3.8 L Perkins diesel I4 rated at 82 bhp, a 4.0 L Perkins diesel V6 rated at 101 bhp, or a 5.9 L Chrysler petrol V8 rated at 170 bhp.
