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We've all heard the stories about the CSK being made because Land Rover had 200 "spare" 2 door shells lying around, but I've never quite believed this to be the true reason, as LR were still making the 2 door for export in 1990. Well, now I've heard a different, slightly more plausible story (although it will need some investigating to prove if it's true)

The story goes that the CSK, and the reason for there being 200 of them is a cancelled UK police order. Apparently at that time the police were still buying 2 door rangies and so put in an order for 200 more, possibly with the "improved" 3.9 engine. However, before the completion of the order they decided to swap to the 4 door rangie instead, leaving LR with 200 part built 2 doors, which were then equiped with North American parts to make them look special and get them out of Lode Lane.

We certainly know that a lot of the parts in the CSK are US spec, we know that the chassis number versus CSK batch number is a little random to say the least - what I'm not sure about is whether in 1989 / 1990 the police were really still buying 2 doors... I spose it's plausible.

Hi Stu,

An interesting story...I'm in no position to either confirm or deny anything but just some observations. 200 vehicles is a big order, in anyone's terms. There is no national sense of 'The Police' in that we have regionally based forces (sorry, services) which all undertake their own independent procurement of kit of any kind. Vehicles, to the best of my knowledge are ordered in the same way. I just can't imagine that there was a sufficient degree of co-ordination to make this happen.

I always understood that the CSK was not a Land Rover initiative at all, but was developed by (RSP) Rover Special(ist?) Products who were also responsible for the 1990 revival of the old shape Mini Cooper (again, initially a limited edition car) and the MG RV8. Rover had some talented people who created products that were greater than the sum of their parts, and the CSK was no exception!

Just a view.

i do like that version of the cancelled police order. Whatever the reason though i'm glad it came into being!