The record
By the late 1960s Metalúrgica de Santa Ana of Linares had progressed from assembling CKD Land Rovers (licence production began in 1958) to engineering its own variants, and in 1969 it introduced a dedicated short-wheelbase military model, the 88 Militar. Like Solihull's contemporary Lightweight/Airportable 88, it wore a narrower, squared-off slab-sided body designed for air and landing-craft transport, with a fold-flat windscreen, removable doors and simplified flat-topped wings, but it was an independent Santana design on Series mechanicals and noticeably heavier than the British Lightweight.
The 88 Militar served all three branches of the Spanish armed forces as a troop carrier, radio vehicle, light ambulance and artillery support vehicle, alongside the long-wheelbase Militar 109; export customers included Morocco and Egypt. Power came from Santana-built 2.25-litre four-cylinder petrol or diesel engines driving through the familiar dual-range four-wheel-drive transmission.
From 1980 Santana offered a civilianised version, the 88 Ligero ('light'), aimed at the leisure market with bright colour options and a roll bar under its removable canvas top; it lasted until about 1985, when the company's pivot to Suzuki production displaced it. The military fleet was phased out from the late 1980s as Nissan Patrols took over, though the type's reputation for toughness in open country outlived it. 'Ligero' has since become the collectors' shorthand for both the military and civilian short-wheelbase Santanas.
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