Usually formerly celebrity-owned vehicles aren’t quite as spicy as this 1990 Ricardo Light Strike, but believe it or not Bear Grylls tooled around in this for a time. If you’ve never seen one before that’s for good reason because there are under 20 in existence with this one being the only one we know is for sale at the moment.
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That’s right, for the low price of £35,000 this Longline Light Strike Vehicle could be sitting in your garage. It’s been used by British Special Forces, who love the fact it’s maneuverable, light, and pretty fast. Primarily used for reconnaissance missions, it still packs a bit of a punch thanks to the 50-caliber Browning machine gun mounted prominently up top.
Unfortunately, the gun has been deactivated but it still looks cool, especially if you have the belt feed hooked up. So you can play military with this machine but you won’t be waging warfare with it, unless you take it to your local paintball course.
With its exposed tubular chassis, there are sling points for quickly hooking this vehicle up for helicopter airlift and insertion into hot zones. Maybe if you’re rich enough to own a helicopter and have the guts to ride in this thing while your buddy pilots, you can feel what that’s like.
The engine is a small 1.9-liter flat-four from a Volkswagen T25 transporter. Adding to the fun is a manual transmission. A VW also donated its suspension and trailing arms, torsion bars, and coilovers with some modifications made for this vehicle.
Since it’s an off-roader, this does come with four-wheel drive and a full-length skidpad. Most impressively, it’s claimed to be able to hit 60 mph.
The seller includes a history file which details its service in the Gulf War. There’s also an article from the March 2007 Military Machines International magazine which details out a restoration done to get this back to its Gulf War spec.
While we expect someone with ties to the British military will want to get their hands on this 1990 Ricardo Light Strike, it would be a fun toy for any outdoorsman who wants to use something unique.
Check out the dealer listing for yourself here.
Images via The Classic Motor Hub
