Meet the man who engineered i-Pace and Defender
It’s so much more than just a job. The man who engineered the brilliant new Defender loves Land Rovers so much he owns more of them than he can count
The inspiration for the new Defender was the original 1948 Land Rover, rather than any Landie that followed over the subsequent 70-odd years. It’s a motoring muse that Nick Rogers, engineering boss of Jaguar Land Rover, should know well. After all, he owns three.
His collection of Land Rovers extends to ‘about 15’ vehicles. These include the gathering you see here, plus a few others scattered at various JLR oces, at a handful of restorers and in the odd barn. Visitors to JLR’s engineering headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire will often see one of his ’48 models on display in reception. Like many of Rogers’ cars, it has a name. This is Fern, and it’s the ’48 car he’s driving today.
One of his ’48 cars was bought in Australia, another is ‘a bag of bolts’ and there’s a ’49 Series I waiting for a new engine. Then there’s a ’50 that is also ‘a box of bits and the engine is missing’. In a barn alongside Rogers’ home is a 1954 107-inch Series I, four years into a total restoration.
His final Series I is a ’57 diesel, an 88-inch wheelbase named Smokey. He bought it from a chap who spent ‘the wrong side of £45,000’ on a full restoration. ‘It kept overheating and I think he got fed up. I saw him and made a ridiculous offer which he rejected. Two miles up the road, he rang me back and said I could have it.’ The boiling, it turned out, was simply due to a leaking heater bunged up by too much radiator sealant. After repairing the heater and flushing the system, it’s run fine ever since. Being engineering chief of Land Rover clearly has its practical upsides. ‘The diesel smells like a bonfire when it starts up but it runs as sweet as a nut.’
Before he introduces us to his other Landies, it’s time to explore how the ’48 original inspired the new Defender. ‘We wanted to recreate what the Wilks brothers [Rover chiefs Maurice and Spencer] did – a car to conquer all four corners of the Earth, a truly practical 4x4. Its functionality and
NICK ROGERS
authenticity were the inspiration for this.’ He nods at his new Defender 90.
‘I love the Series II, the III and the Defender. They’ve each got a place in history and, of course, in many ways they were big improvements over that came before. But it’s the single-minded purity of the first car that we tried to recreate with the new Defender. It’s the same for the Range Rover. The inspiration for the 405 [current Range Rover] was the Spen King original.’
He cites ‘the wheel at each corner’ as an example of the 1948 inspiration carried over to the new Defender. ‘The front and rear overhangs are minimal. It’s square-shaped, the spare wheel is up on the back, it will go anywhere, and the interior is so simple and versatile. There’s also the stowage and space. The interior is actually the part of the car I’m most proud of. The 90 is the size of a Ford Focus yet it will seat six.’
It’s not retro, he insists. ‘We’ve reinvented it in a modern way. I’m a firm believer in not looking back, always looking forward. One of the biggest failings of some new versions of old cars is that the designers and engineers continually looked in the rear-view mirror. Rather, you’ve got to reinvent and recreate what the magic was all about at the beginning and look forward. The new Defender is for modern people who want flexibility and capability, and to be with nature. It has its own attitude. It is what it is, just as the old car was. I really like this single-mindedness. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. It’s not trying to appeal to everyone.’
He also disputes that the target customer for the Series I and new Defender are so very different. ‘The customers of the first Land Rover were forward-thinking a¡uent people. You got the sort of mobility that no one else had. I’d argue that the modern demographic isn’t that different. They’re people who like an adventure and to go out and do stuff. It’s not a workhorse in the same way as the Series I. But a lot of Series Is were used as leisure vehicles.’
Time to meet the rest of the gang. There’s Poppy, a ’59 Series II, named after the bright red paintwork. ‘A neighbouring farmer friend of my dad’s bought it in 1984, the year I started work at British Leyland. He stripped it and it stayed at the back of his barn until three or four years ago, when I bought it after lots of discussions and family Sunday lunches. It has been completely restored using the original body panels. We did some research and it turns out the car had been first registered in Scotland and apparently built for ⊲
‘You’ve got to reinvent what the magic was all about at the beginning and look forward’