6x4 and 6x6 - Series
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- Category: 6x4 and 6x6
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 December 2011 11:21
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The Sandringham Six
By Peter Jones on June 27, 2010 (on biglorryblog)
I am the original designer of the FC82 and also the Sandringham Six 6x6. I own the SMC Group in Bristol, UK and built both vehicles there prior to moving the factory to Neath in South Wales. I sold the world manufacturing rights and it is built now by Penman Engineering in Scotland.
The Sandringham Six
The Hotspur Sandringham Six was a special vehicle approved by Land Rover. Series III and Stage 1 vehicles were used in the manufacture of these 6x6s, therefore these are leaf sprung 6x6s. Vehicles are advertised in 125" and 139" wheelbases. A sales brochure can be viewed below.
Hotspur Series III 125" Sandringham Six
Denty from the LRUK forum posted these pictures of his machine.
His vehicle has ID plates from Hotspur Cars, and is the Series III 125" version. The underside picture shows standard Hotspur leaf configuration: one axle set with 109" mounts, one axle set with 88" mounts, staggered to give roughly 36" between second and third axle centres.
Truck style rear leaf configuration
I found someone had posted pictures of their Sandringham Six-type vehicle on the net, giving some information on the spring setup. It differs from the Hotspur vehicles, but the manufacturer is unknown at present. Any information on this appreciated.
Alternative spring layout
This vehicle has 109" chassis spring mounts on both axles, unlike the Hotspur vehicles. This allows the tougher Salisbury axles to be used on both rear axles without modification. The vehicle was built by Thomas Schnell, and you can see more on this here.
SMC Engineering's Sandringham Six.
SMC Engineering (Bristol) Ltd, (SMC stands for Sandringham Motor Company) designed and built six-wheel drive Land Rovers (Sandringham 6), Range Rovers (Sahara 6), and Forward Controls (FC-82). Here are a couple of pictures of their Stage 1 based 6x6.
This vehicle is in Germany and has undergone a full rebuild.
Safir 6x6s.
Nick very kindly helped out with a little info on A1 LRO (above).
This vehicle was converted to 6x6 by Safir. If anyone has more info on Safir 6x6 Land rovers, please get in touch!
Research is underway regarding the whole 6x6 Land Rover concept and how it developed. If you can help us out with more information regarding any of the Land Rover applications mentioned (or not!) here, please do so. You can contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
6x4 modified Series I recovery.
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