DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY NAMED MODEL · 2016
NAMED MODELFan favourites · VIP buildsUnited Kingdom

Prince Philip's Defender 130 Gun Bus.

The Defender 130 gun bus built by Foley Specialist Vehicles in 2016 for shooting parties at Sandringham — a bronze green single cab with a tall, windowed box body — which Prince Philip then had redesigned, with his own input, into the open-backed hearse that carried his coffin at Windsor in April 2021.

Drive it in the gameSources & evidence
Prince Philip's Defender 130 Gun Bus — front three-quarter render
BASE VEHICLEDefender 130 Hi-CapCONVERTERFoley Specialist VehiclesIN SERVICE2016OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTION1LAYOUT4 wheels · 130″

The record

Foley Specialist Vehicles of Essex built the Defender 130 in 2016 as a 'gun bus' for the Sandringham estate: a bronze green single-cab 130 carrying a tall box body with a side door and large rubber-edged windows so a shooting party could ride together. Prince Philip, a Land Rover enthusiast who had used the marque for decades, took a personal interest in the project and later asked for the vehicle to be reworked, to his own specification, into an open-backed hearse: the box body was removed and replaced by an open rear deck with rubber grips and stops for a coffin, and the whole vehicle was repainted Dark Bronze Green. Fox News reported on the vehicle after it carried the Duke of Edinburgh's coffin from Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel on 17 April 2021, publishing the pre-conversion photograph used here.

The registry's model is the vehicle in its 2016 gun-bus form as photographed: Defender 130 single cab with the round-topped box body, side door with a small high window, three large windows each side, roof vents, rear step and green steel wheels. The hearse conversion is described but not modelled.

Specification

MANUFACTURERLand Rover (Defender 130)
MODIFIER / COACHBUILDERFoley Specialist Vehicles ↗
gun-bus body, 2016; hearse conversion to Prince Philip's design
MANUFACTUREDBuilt 2016; converted to a hearse before 2021
ENGINEFord 2.2 L Duratorq TDCi turbo-diesel (Defender 130 of 2016; not stated in the source)
PRODUCTION RUN1
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
STATUSpreserved
BODYSingle cab with tall windowed box body (gun bus); later open-backed hearse deck
LIVERYDark Bronze Green
ROLESandringham shooting-party transport; royal hearse, Windsor, 17 April 2021
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINEDefender
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE130″
CATEGORYFan favourites · VIP builds

Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.

Sources

  1. 1Land Rover 'gun bus' carried Prince Philip's casket ↗Fox News · accessed 2026-09-11SOURCE
  2. 2https://www.foxnews.com/auto/land-rover-gun-bus-prince-philips-caskethttps://www.foxnews.com/auto/land-rover-gun-bus-prince-philips-casket ↗REFERENCE

Registry record updated 2026-09-11T13:22:19.844Z · status: researched