Milestone Moments
As Land Rover celebrates seven decades in the business we pick out milestone moments from each year
1947
The story begins at Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey, close to where the Rover car company’s technical director, Maurice Wilks, owns a farm. Maurice’s much-loved ex-ww2 Jeep workhorse has just expired and he and his elder brother, Rover’s managing director, Spencer Wilks, are sitting on the sandy beach debating whether a British-made 4x4 would be a viable proposition. Maurice starts idly sketching a Jeep-like vehicle in the sand… and the Land Rover is born.
1948
Once the Wilks brothers receive the backing of the Rover board, development of the new vehicle proceeds at breakneck speed. A centre-steer prototype – using many Jeep components and with its steering wheel in the middle – is tried, but abandoned when it’s realised that fellow motorists wouldn’t be able to spot the driver’s hand signals. Production of the original Series I commences in January and on April 30 it is launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show – where it’s an instant success.
1949
The original 80in Series I was a basic workhorse. To provide comfort, Land Rover introduces the coach built Tickford Station Wagon. But as a passenger car it is heavily taxed, making it twice the price of a Land Rover.
1950
An optional hard top is offered for the first time.
1951
Original 1.6-litre side valve engine is replaced with a 2.0-litre OHV.
1952
Minerva of Antwerp build Land Rovers under licence for the Belgium military. So do German manufacturers Tempo, who build them for the West German border police.
1953
The Land Rover gets bigger, with an 86in short wheelbase version and a 107in long wheelbase, initially available only as a pick-up.
1954
For the first five years, Land Rovers were available in any colour
you wanted – as long as it was green. But customers wanted more choice and now blue and grey painted models are also offered.
The Land Rover Owners Club is set up by the company. Many more clubs follow, throughout the world.
1955
Six university undergraduates in two 86in station wagons drive from London to Singapore in the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, arriving a year later.
1956
Ten-seater 107in Station Wagon makes its debut, looking like a giant Meccano model.
Santana of Spain reaches agreement to build Series Is under licence. Production begins in 1958 and continues until 1983, when Santana ends its agreement with Solihull, but continues to build very similar-looking vehicles until the company closes in 2011.
1957
The first Land Rover diesel engine is offered, with a capacity of 2.0-litres, 52 bhp and 87 lb ft of torque.
1958
Series II is unveiled – exactly ten years after the Series I and at the same venue, the Amsterdam Motor Show. There are 88- and 109in versions, both designed with barrelled sides and sills that hide the chassis. There is also a new petrol engine with a 2.25-litre capacity.
1959 1960
The 250,000th Land Rover rolls off the Solihull production line.
In Detroit, Michigan, USA, engine designers at General Motors’ Buick division start development work on a new V8 petrol engines with lightweight aluminium cylinder heads and block. It goes into production in 1961 and is used in Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac cars, but isn’t very successful and is dropped in 1963 when the price of aluminium soars. Two years later, the Rover company buys the rights to the engine, which is then built in Solihull and deployed in Rover saloon cars from 1968.
But it isn’t until 1970 – ten years after it was originally designed – that this Cinderella of engines finally makes it to the ball, achieving legendary status under the bonnet of the new Range Rover. And there it stays for over a quarter of a century until the Range Rover Classic finally ends production in 1996.
1961
Updated Series IIA model introduced. The main difference is a bigger diesel engine, with the same 2.25-litre capacity as the petrol.
1963
Two Land Rovers – both with the fake registration BMG 757A – are among the three getaway vehicles used in the Great Train Robbery on August 8. A 15-strong gang of robbers stops the Glasgow to London mail train at Cheddington, Buckinghamshire and stole £2.6 million in used bank notes. Most of the ringleaders, including the late Ronnie Biggs, were sentenced to 30 years in jail, but the mastermind behind the heist was never caught… and most of the money was never recovered.
On September 8, Land Rover creator Maurice Wilks dies suddenly at his Anglesey home, aged just 59.
1964
Having led the engineering team that successfully launched the advanced Rover P6 series last year, chief engineer Charles ‘Spen’ King is put in charge of special projects and comes up with the idea of a dual-purpose 4x4 equally at home on- or off-road. Two years later, design work begins on what is to become the Range Rover.
1965
Rover takes over the Alvis company of Coventry for its machine shop, in which components for the new V8 engine will be produced.
1966
The 500,001st Land Rover rolls off the Solihull production line in April – it’s a Series IIA, driven by Rover MD William Martin-hurst. In the passenger seat is Tom Barton, Land Rover’s senior designer who created the transmission system of the original Series I.
1967
The Series IIB Forward Control replaces the earlier SIIA FC, built in 1962. Development work also begins on what is to become Land Rover’s biggestever model – the behemoth military Forward Control 101 with 3.5 V8 petrol engine which will be produced from 1972 to 1978. The 101 was designed as a gun tractor but some were later converted to carry ambulance bodies.
1968
The military Lightweight (Truck Utility half tonne) enters service. Production continues until the mid-1980s.
1969
The headlamps on the SIIA are moved from the radiator grille to the front wings.
1970
The passing of the sixties truly is the end of an era. In the space of a few months we see the untimely deaths of pop stars Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, as well as break-up of the Beatles. On June 18 Harold Wilson’s Labour government, which has been in power since 1964, is swept away by Ted Heath’s Conservatives. And, just a day earlier, the Range Rover is born.
With coil springs and disc brakes all round, the handling is superb. Acres of glass make every journey a pleasure. It’s an overnight success and Solihull can’t keep up with demand; there are lengthy waiting lists, leading to secondhand models fetching more than new ones!
1971
The Series III is launched. In truth there’s little difference from the preceding SIIA, apart from its controversial plastic grille and a slightly higher compression on the 2.25 petrol engine.
1972
Range Rover is the vehicle of choice for the British Trans-americas Expedition – the first vehicle-based expedition to traverse both American continents north to south through the Darién Gap – an impenetrable swathe of forest and swamp in Panama, led by Brit John Blashford-snell.
1974
Land Rover pulls out of the US market under competition from Japanese 4x4s.
1975
British Leyland, the unloved parent company of Rover and other British brands like Austin, Jaguar, Morris, Wolseley and Triumph, collapses and is nationalised. Many historic marques fade and disappear in the years that follow, but Land Rover goes from strength to strength.
1976
The one-millionth Land Rover – A SWB Series III Station Wagon – leaves the production line.
1977
Michael Edwardes is ap-
pointed to run British Leyland, making it clear that his mission is to make it profitable or close it down. Happily he could see the potential of Land Rover…
1978
The growing importance of Land Rover to Edwardes is demonstrated by his decision to register it as a company in its own right. Before that, Land Rover was just a brand name within the Rover company. Edwardes secures £200 million of government funding for Land Rover to double production by the 1980s.
“The Stage One V8 gives a preview of what Defender models will look like in the future”
1979
Lacklustre performance of the Series III is addressed with the launch of the Stage One V8 – a 109 powered by Rover’s lusty 3.5-litre engine. The big V8 needs more room under the bonnet, so the recessed radiator grille is replaced with a flush front end, giving a preview of what Defender models will look like in the future.
1980
Rover car production ends at Solihull, freeing the Lode Land factory to concentrate exclusively on the profitable green oval models. Rover’s SD1 saloon production transfers to Cowley, Oxford.
Meanwhile, Series III’S venerable 2.25 petrol and diesel engines are upgraded with the introduction of five main bearing crankshafts, to improve reliability, and Solihull finally caves in to public demand and produces a five-door Range Rover.
1981
Land Rover supplies vehicles for the Camel Trophy for the first time – in this case Range Rovers – and the venue is the jungles of Sumatra. It is the start of a legendary partnership that will see men and machine tackling the most gruelling off-road locations on the planet until 1998.
1982
Range Rover gets an automatic gearbox option. Meanwhile, the Series III gets a tad more comfort with the new County Station Wagon.
1983
In with the new as One Ten is launched. The new coil-sprung model is long-overdue, with its leaf-sprung predecessor little changed since the start of Series II production in 1958.
1984
Ninety – the short wheelbase version of the One Ten – joins the family. The venerable four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines are expanded from 2.25 to 2.5 litres but remain fairly lacklustre.
1985
Ninety is offered with a V8 engine for the first time. Meanwhile, Range Rover gets four-speed ZF auto gearbox to replace the three-speed Chrysler original.
1986
Land Rover pulls the plug on a joint venture with Perkins to develop a V8 diesel engine. Desperate for a diesel version of the Range Rover, the company buys one off the shelf from Italian company VM. Also this year, BL plc becomes Rover Group plc.
1987
Land Rover returns to North America, where it starts selling the Range Rover, equipped with a new, fuel-injected 150 bhp version of the time-served V8 engine that America had discarded back in 1963.
1988
A year of turmoil. A six-week strike puts a damper on the company’s 40th birthday celebrations and US General Motors puts in a bid for the company, followed by others, including JCB. Eventually the entire Rover Group is privatised by the government and sold to British Aerospace for £150 million. It is now known simply as Rover.