Military APV Runner

History

The forward-set radiator and angular front wheel arches identify it, and a roof-mounted extractor fan in an armoured cowl finally cured the SB.301's near-total lack of ventilation.

It is the personnel-carrying counterpart of the turreted Mark 4 Armoured Patrol Car — same generation, same engine, no turret. The SB.301's six-cylinder engine had been adequate rather than good; Bob Morrison, who has photographed these vehicles since the 1980s, describes it as "still a bit gutless in such a heavy vehicle, especially when fully crewed". Fitting the V8 required the radiator to be moved forward, which the Radford Site calls the key recognition feature for the model; Morrison points instead to the angular front wheel arches as the easiest identifier of the newer body. The second substantive improvement was ventilation: an extractor fan in an armoured cowl mounted on the roof, which must, as the Radford Site puts it, have improved crew comfort enormously over the SB.301's reliance on open gun ports. Smoke-discharger arrangements and public-address systems were offered as options, as on any Radford, and vision blocks could replace the standard pistol ports in the rear. The Royal Ulster Constabulary is the best-documented user. Five SB.401s came from a cancelled overseas order and were reworked in Ulster Police workshops for internal-security duties; the two sources disagree by a year on when — Bob Morrison dates the purchase to 1985, the Radford Site says they were supplied in 1986. At least one ex-Ulster Police SB.401 had reached a Lincolnshire vehicle graveyard by 2011. The design's afterlife was substantial, however.