Remember the Alvis we recently featured, well we have another Alvis for you! Alvis continued making commercial and military vehicles after automobile production ended. One of the vehicles that was quite successful with the British Army was the 6-wheeled amphibious Stalwart. This particular one has found its way to Raleigh, North Carolina and is for sale here on craigslist for $3,000.

I owned one of these once! Just a little smaller. This was one of my favorite Matchbox toys. I don’t know if BP actually used a Stalwart in a civilian application like this, but it sure was fun to imagine exploring the great unknown in my back yard. Stalwarts are 6-wheel drive and 6-wheel steer, so they are quite capable off-road machines. They are perhaps best known, however, for their water capabilities, as this unbelievable clip of one plunging off into a lake shows.

This particular Stalwart has seen better days. Originally powered by a 220 horsepower Rolls Royce 6.5 liter gasoline V-8, the engine is missing. The last time it was used was as a tour bus to transport 24 people. After a little research I found that the Peter Pan Bus Lines started their Land and Water Tours using Stalwarts in 1998, so you know it was at least running at that point. I did find some articles where they were in Baltimore from 2000 to 2001; at that point they were listed as $200,000 vehicles. That may set a record for depreciation!

As you can see from this cutaway drawing, the Stalwart has an incredibly complex drivetrain, which makes sense considering all wheels drive and steer. Access to the three person cab is only through roof hatches. A quirk of the drive system is that you cannot turn on hard surfaces without binding up the axles as the Alvis was designed for off-road use only. Even the military had to transport the vehicles by massive truck or airplane rather than just driving them from place to place. I wonder what truck and trailer they used as the FV620 weighs no less than 9000 kg, or just under 20,000 pounds! When in the drink, two waterjets propelled the vehicle to a little less than 7 mph, while on the road the Alvis was capable of no less than 40 mph flat out. I can only imagine the ride at that point. What would you repower this 6×6 with? Have you got anywhere to use it?