The Bowler Wildcat is an off-road vehicle originally made by Bowler Offroad, it is an evolution of the Bowler Tomcat using some components from the

Land Rover Defender The Land Rover Defender (initially introduced as the Land Rover 110 / One Ten, and in 1984 joined by the Land Rover 90 / Ninety, plus the new, extra-length Land Rover 127 in 1985) is a series of British off-road cars and pick-up truck, pickup ...

. The initial version, Wildcat 100, had a tubular chassis with 100" wheelbase and used the same body style as the previous box-section chassis "Tomcat 100". The Wildcat 200 was an evolution of this having a completely new spaceframe (of 106" wheelbase) and fibreglass body panels. The Wildcat has been entered in various off-road

rally raid Rally raid, also known as cross-country rallying, is a form of long distance off-road racing that takes place over several days. The length of the event can be as short as 2–3 days for a cross-country baja to as long as 15 days with marathon ra ...

s, most notably the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal ...

and Rallye des Pharaons. The manufacturing rights to the Wildcat were sold by Bowler to Qt Services in December 2007, to provide support to existing Wildcat owners while Bowler concentrated on production of their newer vehicle, the Bowler Nemesis. Since then, QT Services have continued to support owners in competitive events and have made further developments to the vehicle. In 2011, Supacat started marketing a militarized Wildcat in collaboration with QT Services. Promotional materials show the vehicle equipped with a Kongsberg Protector Super Lite

remote weapon station A remote controlled weapon station (RCWS), or remote weapon station (RWS), also known as a remote weapon system (RWS), is a remotely operated weaponized system often equipped with fire-control system for light and medium-caliber weapons which ca ...

Design and construction

The Wildcat has a tubular space frame construction that incorporates a

roll cage A roll cage is a specially engineered and constructed frame built in (or sometimes around, in which case it is known as an exo cage) the passenger compartment of a vehicle to protect its occupants from being injured or killed in an accident, pa ...

as an integral part of the frame structure. The body panels are made of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

. The suspension system uses

Land Rover Discovery Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various isla ...

beam axle A beam axle, rigid axle or solid axle is a dependent suspension design in which a set of wheels is connected laterally by a single beam or shaft. Beam axles were once commonly used at the rear wheels of a vehicle, but historically they have als ...

s front and rear. The front axles are located by

radius rod A radius rod (also called a radius arm, torque arm, torque spring, and torsion bar) is a suspension link intended to control wheel motion in the longitudinal (fore-aft) direction. The link is connected (with a rubber or solid bushing) on one en ...

s and a

Panhard rod A Panhard rod (also called Panhard bar, track bar, or track rod) is a suspension link that provides lateral location of the axle. Originally invented by the Panhard automobile company of France in the early twentieth century, this device has been ...

. The rear axle is located by

trailing arm A (semi) trailing-arm suspension, sometimes referred to as (semi) trailing-link is a vehicle axle or wheel suspension design in which one or more horizontal arms (or "links"), perpendicular to and forward of the axle, are connecting the axle or ...

s and a

Watts linkage In kinematics, Watt's linkage (also known as the parallel linkage) is a type of mechanical linkage invented by James Watt in which the central moving point of the linkage is constrained to travel on a nearly straight line. It was described in W ...

. Bowler originally offered the Wildcat with a choice of 4, 4.6 or 5 litre displacement V8 engines in several levels of

engine tuning Engine tuning is the adjustment or modification of the internal combustion engine or Engine Control Unit (ECU) to yield optimal performance and increase the engine's power output, economy, or durability. These goals may be mutually exclusive; ...

, or a 2.2 or 2.5 litre

turbo diesel The term turbo-diesel, also written as turbodiesel and turbo diesel, refers to any diesel engine equipped with a turbocharger. As with other engine types, turbocharging a diesel engine can significantly increase its efficiency and power output, ...

. An optional feature offered by Bowler was a lift device that could lift the vehicle past the lowest travel of the front and rear

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspende ...

. The lift was intended to be used to assist in digging the vehicle out of the soft ground or to facilitate changing a wheel. The lift device consisted of a large steel plate on a hinged sub-frame attached to the underside of the vehicle frame between the front and rear axles. The lift was lowered by a

hydraulic ram A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. The device uses the water hammer ef ...

that was controlled from inside the vehicle. The lift plate also served to protect the underside of the vehicle when raised.

Specification

* Engine type: V8 * Displacement: 4.6 L (281 in³) * Power: 221 ps (218 bhp / 163 kW) * Torque: 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) * Power/ liter: 48 ps (47 hp) * Power / weight: 121 ps (119 bhp) / t * Torque / weight: 219 Nm (162 lb-ft) / t * Transmission: 6-Speed

Research platform

Two Wildcats have been retrofitted by BAE Systems with fly-by-wire control systems, high-performance computing payloads and sensors for estimating the local terrain, including lidars and cameras. The first of which is used by the BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre as part of their autonomous systems research. The second is used by the Mobile Robotics Group at Oxford University as part of their ongoing research into lifelong infrastructure-free navigation for autonomous vehicles.

''Top Gear''

The Bowler Wildcat was featured in series 2 episode 1 of the British motoring programme ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

'', which aired on May 11, 2003.

References

External links

*{{Official website, www.bowlermotorsport.com, Bowler Offroad Off-road vehicles