Guides

Armoured Car Glossary: BR, VR, STANAG, GBOL and the DARTZ Vocabulary

By DARTZ Editorial · 17 September 2026 · Updated 4 October 2026

This glossary explains the terms used for armoured cars, and the words DARTZ uses for its own. BR1 to BR7 are the EN 1063 classes for armoured glass, FB for opaque panels, VR1 to VR10 the VPAM classes for whole vehicles and STANAG 4569 the NATO military levels. DARTZ's own vocabulary includes BOND, Prombron’, CLV, GBOL, WarBones, the Spirit of Victors, NaturReal Ⓓ and Stallion Force.

Armoured cars come with a vocabulary of their own, and DARTZ adds a second one. This is the short version of both.

Protection standards

The protection ladder: EN 1063, VPAM and STANAG 4569 classes compared

BR1 to BR7. The classes of the European standard EN 1063 for bullet-resistant glass, from .22 rimfire up to armour-piercing 7.62 mm rifle rounds. Written B1 to B7 in brochures. Full table.

FB1 to FB7. The matching classes of EN 1522, for opaque materials: steel, aramid, polyethylene and ceramic panels.

B6. The most quoted civilian class: protection against 7.62×51 mm NATO ball ammunition.

B7. The top EN class: 7.62×51 mm rounds with a hard steel core.

VR1 to VR10. The vehicle classes of VPAM BRV, the guideline of German test laboratories. Unlike BR and FB, VR rates the finished vehicle, fired at in its weak points. VR7 is commonly matched with B6 and VR9 with B7.

STANAG 4569. NATO’s protection levels for logistic and light armoured military vehicles, Levels 1 to 6, from rifle rounds up to cannon fire, with separate levels for mines.

Parts of an armoured car

Ballistic steel, ceramic, aramid, UHMWPE. The materials of armour: a hard face to stop or break up a round, and fibre layers to catch fragments. How they work.

The thick layered edge and heavy hinge of an armoured door, close-up

Laminated glass and polycarbonate. Armoured glazing: bonded glass layers with a polycarbonate backing that keeps splinters out of the cabin.

Run-flat tyres. Tyres that keep the car moving when damaged.

Electrochromic windows. Glass that can turn opaque. On the Black Alligator MMXX, DARTZ says, the windows can go fully opaque in an attack, blinding a shooter.

Drone protection. DARTZ’s classes for defending a car from drones: JD for jamming, JAD for jamming and neutralising, SCOUT for the car’s own reconnaissance drones. The standard.

The DARTZ vocabulary

BOND. Bespoke Opulent Noble Drive: DARTZ’s word for its cars, instead of SUV. Why.

A DARTZ Prombron’ Black Stallion, a BOND, at night outside the DARTZ hall

Prombron’. DARTZ’s model name, from the Russian for Industrial Armour, first used for an armoured car in 1922.

DARTZ. D.A.R. for Division Automobile Riga, T for Tank, Z for Zavod, factory. The story.

CLV. The Roman numeral 155: DARTZ’s anniversary series, from 2024, the 155th year since 1869, until CLX in 2029.

GBOL. DARTZ’s own armour technology. What DARTZ says about it.

WarBones. DARTZ’s name for the GMT 825 frame under the Black Stallion CLV.

Lead Zeppelin. The optional armour package of the 2012 Black Dragon: lead inserts in the panels and special lead glass.

Spirit of Victors. The DARTZ crest: a winged skull carrying the faces of Igor Sikorsky and André Nágel. The story.

Picassian Sliced. DARTZ’s Art Deco grille design. The story.

NaturReal Ⓓ. DARTZ’s name for the natural leather it uses; no eco leather, no Alcantara.

Ⓓ. DARTZ’s replacement for ©: D for DARTZ, Drive and Overdrive.

Stallion Force (SF). DARTZ’s unit instead of horsepower, always declared with one extra: 600 & 1, 1,000 & 1.

R.F.E. Responsible For Everything: the title of Leonard F. Yankelovich.

Carrosserie. A coachbuilder. DARTZ calls itself one, and prefers its own spelling, Karrozzerie.

About DARTZ

DARTZ is a Riga carrosserie that builds bespoke, opulent vehicles, armoured or non-armoured, in strictly limited numbers. It calls them BONDs: Bespoke Opulent Noble Drives.

Its heritage runs back to the Russo-Baltic Wagon Factory (RBVZ), founded in Riga in 1869, whose automobile department built its first car in 1909. Leonard F. Yankelovich revived that heritage as DARTZ in 1988. The group, DARTZ Grupa OÜ, is registered in Tallinn, Estonia.

Its Prombron’ models, from the Iron Diamond and Black Dragon to the Black Shark, Black Alligator and Black Stallion, have been covered by Top Gear, Forbes, Robb Report and Fox News, among many others.