Apart from being the fourth largest Lizard on earth and native to Australia that is?
Well, it is the nick name given to the very special Land Rover built for the Australian Military in the late 1980’s.
If this is news to you and you want detail then head over to wiki:
However, here is the “In a nutshell” explanation.
The Australian Military had a ageing fleet of Series Land Rovers in the late 1980’s which needed to be replaced.
The conversation with Land Rover for replacements probably went along the lines of “If you can build us a proper Land Rover” then will will place an order.
So a super tough Land Rover 110 was designed on a specially designed galvanised chassis with a 2 inch lift, this was coupled with an Isuzu 3.9 litre engine, together with a spare wheel that was mounted under the chassis at the rear. Anther specification was that the Perentie could be suspended by one corner from a helicopter with no structural issues – could an Air Portable cope with that?
There were many different versions and modifications as well as a more powerful 6×6 derivative.
After years of service, much longer than the 15 years originally planned, the first Perentie’s were sold off by the Military, via an Auction house in Australia. Some of these have found their way to South Africa and a handful to the UK. However, most are to say the least very basic, no dashboard, windows, sides, roof; depending their military role.
More on the one that we found later………..But in the meantime, here is an image of one looking rather smart!
48 States of Gray 