Bear Grylls’ SAS Gulf War buggy for sale, with optional machine gun

Here’s your chance to own Grylls’ SAS buggy equipped with a roof-mounted machine gun built for the Gulf War.

Image credit: Classic Motor Hub

An off-road buggy used by the British Army’s Special Air Service (SAS) and previously owned by celebrity adventurer and former SAS member Bear Grylls is up for sale, and includes a roof-mounted machine gun – with provisions to mount a rocket launcher and anti-tank missile systems, too.

Offered by The Classic Motor Hub in Gloucestershire, UK, the 1990 Ricardo Light Strike Vehicle (LSV) is one of 20 built by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) for use by the elite special forces unit in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

With an asking price of £35,000 ($AU66,400), the open-air LSV is shorter than a Volkswagen Golf hatchback at 4.08m but slightly wider at 2.11m and considerably taller at just over two metres.

Classified by the MoD as a ‘Ground Mobile Weapon Platform’, it also includes a deactivated .50-calibre Browning machine gun on top of its open frame tube chassis.

The tube chassis itself was designed to make it easier for the military vehicle to be collected and dropped off by helicopter.

On the ground, the LSV uses a 1.9-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and four-speed manual gearbox taken from a Volkswagen Transporter van.

It also has Volkswagen coil-over suspension components and is one of only five built to feature four-wheel drive, with an estimated weight of less than 1000kg.

Underneath is a full-length skid plate to protect it while negotiating rough terrain, with a modest top speed of 60mph (96km/h).

Following its decommission from the SAS, it was used in the 1991 Certain Shield NATO exercise and was sold to a private buyer in 1997.

It was restored in the early 2000s to Gulf War specification and was purchased by historic racer Ludovic Lindsay and later Bear Grylls, the TV celebrity who himself served in the SAS in the 1990s.

UK collectors estimate only six examples of the LSV remain, with Bonhams selling one at auction in mid-2023 for £31,050 ($AU58,861) with the registration A11BUG.

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