Hardshell Dragoon

History

Published accounts conflict on production dates and the company's later history, so this record is held at draft.

The all-steel hull was proofed against 7.62 mm ball ammunition at 25 metres, with floor protection against anti-personnel mine and grenade fragments, armoured glass, and a protected fuel tank. A commander and driver sat up front with space for around a dozen equipped troops in the rear compartment, which was fitted with vision blocks and firing ports along the sides and accessed by side and rear doors. The standard engine was the 134 bhp 3.5-litre Runner V8 petrol, with a 3.9-litre diesel offered as an option, alongside extras including a rotating one-man turret with 7.62 mm machine-gun mount, electrically fired grenade dischargers, run-flat tyres, searchlights and public-address equipment. Variants offered included a field ambulance, an internal-security vehicle and a communications/command vehicle, alongside the smaller 4x4 Hardshell Skirmisher. Accounts of the marque's later history conflict: one reference records the Hardshell division being absorbed into Steelback Engineering of Dumfries in 1986, while another dates Yeoman production from 1987 to 1997, and no later sales figures were published.