Post-WWII Cold War Era

As military strategy shifted towards air liftable forces, the UK developed the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance family (CVR) in the 1960's to support air-landed troops, with both tracked (T) and wheeled (W) variants considered.

The wheeled variant evolved into the FV721 (Fox) Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Wheeled) or CVR(W).

developed by Daimler from 1965 with prototypes (see Photos) by 1967. From the design and development stage, the production was tendered and won by the Royal Ordinance factory in Leeds. Production commenced in the early 1970's, with vehicles entering service in 1973 with the intent that Fox would replace the Post war now ageing Ferret scout car and Saladin armoured car fleet. It left service in the UK in 1994

CVR(W) FV721 Fox

The body was made of a aluminium and magnesium alloy fully welded in a unitary structure. Thicker plates required to maintain the ballistic integrity as the previous steel armoured cars. This allowed for the vehicle to be fully welded on a jig into a singular mono hull, with no need for any internal stiffening.

The drive train featured a rear mounted 4.2L straight six jaguar XK engine capable of 190bhp (140kW), the production vehicle engines were militerised with a 7.75:1 compression ratio, but the original prototype engines were sourced off the jaguar production line for the new "E" type. A fluid flywheel was used to provide a clutch-less drive system with a smooth take up of power. The Diamler five speed epicyclic, preselect gearbox as originally developed for the ferret, was modified to provide more power in the earlier gears (1st gear provides 54.80:1) Power was taken from the gearbox via a differential to a 4x4 system with a dedicated drive shaft to each wheel, a bevel gearbox at each wheel station then turned and reduces the drive speed. Finally a sun and plant drive configuration, provides power to the wheel hub.