Military APV Gen 2

History

A thicker-skinned second-generation Radford patrol car — armour raised from 7.25 mm to 8.25 mm on the same Gen 2A chassis and 2,286 cc four — of which only about 50 were built. It is identified by the double supports for the turret's rear flap, which became a single central support from the Mark 3 onward.

The principal change was ballistic: armour thickness went up from 7.25 mm to 8.25 mm. The Radford Site notes that this attribution is not universally agreed — some references place the same increase between the Mark 2 and Mark 3 instead, and the site owner's own Mark 1 carries a mixture of both thicknesses, which he attributes to the Mark 1 having been derived directly from the third-stage Ulster Police prototype. Quoted vehicle weight did not change with the later marks (2,941 kg unladen for the Mk 2, 3 and 4), which is one reason the armour question remains open. By 1968 the Mark 2 was advertised with an optional 2,625 cc six-cylinder petrol engine producing 84 bhp at 4,500 rpm on a 7:1 compression ratio. A later Mark 2 brochure shows that this six-cylinder option had been moved into a separate designation — the Mark 3 — and uprated to 95 bhp at 4,500 rpm by raising compression to 7.8:1. For a period the two marks were sold side by side, the engine being the only difference; customers facing difficult terrain were steered to the six. The optional extractor fan sat in an armoured cowl on the rear escape hatch, and an optional second fuel tank extended range to 320 miles. Recognition points against the Mark 3 are the double supports carrying the turret's rear flap and a period Pye-type VHF antenna base. No British operator of the Mark 2 is recorded in the sources consulted. Radford exports eventually reached more than thirty countries, but published operator lists do not break down by mark.