Land Rover Llama.

The Llama began in 1985 as Land Rover's bid to win the Ministry of Defence contract to replace its fleet of 101 Forward Control gun tractors, with an eye to civilian sale as well. Heavily based on the contemporary One Ten, it used a thicker-steel derivative of that chassis with coil-spring suspension, a five-speed gearbox and the 3.5-litre Rover V8 on Zenith/Stromberg carburettors tuned to about 110 horsepower; one prototype instead carried an 85-horsepower turbodiesel with poor results. The tilting cab was of glass-fibre construction, and bodies included the enclosed box vans of the pilot-production run.

Eleven prototypes plus a single production-line vehicle were built during 1986–87 for MoD evaluation. Testing exposed instability over rough ground from the tall, coil-sprung layout and weak performance when laden, and the petrol V8 sat badly with an MoD that had just standardised on diesel. The Ministry chose the Dodge 50-based Renault-Dodge RB44 instead, and without those guaranteed orders Land Rover judged a civilian launch — against the Unimog, and with no suitable engine — too risky, cancelling the project in early 1988.

Several vehicles survive: the sole pilot-production example, an olive-green box van, is displayed at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, while prototypes 1, 2, 4, 5 and 10 are held by the Dunsfold Collection, and one road-legal vehicle was assembled from remaining parts in 1998.