Watch video: Indian Army’s Tata Safari on Delhi Roads: Why it’s called the GS800 and more!

The Tata Safari was recently given a new lease of life when the Indian Army decided to adopt it as a replacement to the ageing Maruti Suzuki Gypsy. Considering the heritage and all round fan-appeal around Tata first indigenously built 4×4, we have closely followed it’s journey from civilian adventure mobile to a camo-touting defence mobility machine. The journey for the Tata Safari started last year with Tata Motors bagging a contract from the  Ministry of Defence to supply a little over 3000 units to the Indian armed forces. Before deliveries began, we even got a sneak peek of what the Tata Safari might look like after the armies works division got their hands on it. Now shortly after deliveries have begun, an Express Drives reader has spotted an Army version of the Gypsy on test in Delhi.

Also read: Indian Army Tata Safari Storme with 265 hp, 800 Nm torque! 1500 vehicles included

The Army Spec Tata Safari gets black and beige interiors, along with reading lamps in the front and middle rows and a Subros air conditioning unit. In terms of safety, the Safari gets dual airbags and ABS. On the outside, matte green paint for camouflage a colour that is exclusive to the Indian Army, provision to attach jerry cans on the rear left and blacked-out lamps. Chrome bits have been given the blackout treatment or replaced with a standard functional black fibre strip. Tata Safari Storme is powered by the 2.2L Varicor engine that sheds a power of 154 bhp and 400 Nm of torque mated with a 6-Speed gearbox.

[jwplayer JqTRxCcH]

It’s good to see the Safari already in use, as we had earlier reported the SUV went through 15 gruelling months of testing at various altitudes, terrains and temperatures before the contract was fully awarded. The Army’s tender required the vehicles to have at least 800 kgs of Payload ability,  A/C and hard roof along with 4×4 as a standard offering. The Safari which gets the moniker GS800 (General Service 800) is also likely to be further modified to suit other needs the likes of which we saw earlier at the 2018 Defence Expo in Chennai.