The Collection
One man’s fleet of amazing Land Rovers includes the earliest One Ten and Discovery 3, two very early classic Range Rovers and a legendary off-roader’s race car
Dave Phillips uncovers a fleet of classic Land Rovers deep in East Anglia, including the earliest One Ten
WE ALL love Land Rovers – and that includes you, me and everybody else reading this issue of LRM. But some of us love them more than others, and for some it becomes a compulsion. That’s when you become a collector. And once you start collecting them, the really obsessed find it hard to stop.
That’s why this morning I’m bouncing down a very bumpy, narrow track in rural East Anglia. I’m on the trail of a particularly dedicated collector who has amassed a fleet of historic Land Rovers that would put a few museums to shame… as long as I can find the place.
The satnav in my Disco tells me I’ve arrived so I pull up and survey the scene. The nondescript red brick buildings ahead of me look just like every other farmyard I’ve already driven past, and the only sign of life is a herd of cattle in the adjacent field who look up in idle amusement. They don’t get to see many passers-by out here in the sticks. But through a gap in the hedge I spot some Bahama Gold paintwork gleaming in the sun. Craning my neck, I can see two Range Rovers, a One Ten, a Discovery 3 and a Bowler off-roader. I really have arrived.
In this remote field are five vehicles each worth an article of their own. They include the oldest One Ten prototype known to exist, as well as the earliest of the four preproduction Discovery 3s that escaped the crusher.
Those two vehicles alone should be enough to get any Land Rover enthusiast’s heart racing, but beside them are two pristine very early two-door Range Rovers that look as if they’re just out of the showroom. And one of them has a trailer attached, upon which sits one of the very first off-road competition vehicles build by the late, great Drew Bowler.
We’ll have a good nosey around all of them in a minute, but first I’m greeted by the very shy and secretive owner of this collection, one Gary Wilton. He’s happy to allow me to take photographs of his treasured vehicles to share with fellow LRM readers, as long as I keep the exact location a secret, but he refuses point-blank to appear in any of those photographs.
“Sorry, but I don’t want to be in the pictures,” he insists. “I’m quite a shy person and I wouldn’t want it to look like I’m showing off.”
Luckily he is more than happy to talk about his beloved Land Rovers – so I ask him how he caught the collecting bug. He laughs. “I’m not a serial collector,” he corrects me. “They just seem to find me. I’m a Land Rover enthusiast and once you make a start, word gets out. When friends hear about old or rare Land Rovers they tell me about them.
“You’ve got to be lucky. You can spend all your time – years in fact – looking for these things but never find them. It’s just coincidence that these have come my way.”
Take that incredible pre-production One Ten. First registered early in 1983, it has some unique features that distinguish it from the production models that followed later
in the year, including a distinctive galvanised front windscreen surround. Also different are the off-white door tops and the door cards inside. Little differences include the ashtray, which is mounted on the front of the dash, on the passenger side. On production models it was situated on top of the dash. All minor details, but for those with a fascination for historic vehicles, they’re a very big deal indeed.
Amazingly, Gary has known that vehicle for most of its life. Back in the early 1980s, Land Rover didn’t consign its prototype vehicles to the crusher, but sold them on through the trade. Hence GVF 663Y ended up on the forecourt of franchise dealers Mann Egerton at Norwich, where it was snapped up by farmer, Anthony Gayle.
“Anthony is a neighbour and I’d known him and his One Ten for years. I always told him that if he ever sold it I’d be interested in buying. Seven years ago I did just that,” he says.
The One Ten had spent its working life as a farm hack and Gary has resisted the temptation to go for a full-on restoration, keeping it totally original. The interior still has the careworn appearance of a farm workhorse and the 2.25-litre petrol engine under the bonnet hasn’t been cleaned. It was built in an era when Land Rover’s petrol models still had manual chokes – and it has the choke knob beside the steering column to prove it.
The Discovery 3 standing beside it is a very different beast, but like the One Ten it is a unique prototype. “Of the 120 preproduction prototype Discovery 3s, only four are known to have survived the crusher and this is the oldest of the four,” says Gary. “It was also used as a promotional vehicle that appeared on the videos Land Rover made at the time.
“The reason the four vehicles escaped the crusher was because they were given to Drew Bowler as development vehicles for the Land Rover-based Paris Dakar rally raid racer he was building. They were registered successively as ULA, ULB, ELC and ULD. This is ULA, the oldest.
“It had 56,000 miles when I bought it from Drew. It had no service book, because it was originally a factory vehicle. I did use it as my everyday vehicle for a few years, but I put 133,000 miles on the clock and, as I realised its importance, I wanted to keep it in good order. So I bought a Disco 4 as my everyday vehicle to give this one an easier time.”
The Drew Bowler connection doesn’t end there. Also in the line-up today is one of the very first Land Rover-based racers created by the Derbyshire legend, who died in 2016, and in which he himself raced in the early 1980s. It has a 3.9-litre Rover V8 engine under the bonnet and Gary, a keen off-roader, has driven it in five ALRC (Association of Land Rover Clubs) National Championships, as well as comp safaris at local club events.
The Bowler is painted in Bahama Gold, just like the two immaculate Range Rovers alongside it. They look like two peas in a pod, but looks can be deceptive. Although they are both very early classics, built in 1971, they were literally separated at birth. After leaving the production line at Solihull, one went to spend its life in Wales, while the other was shipped to the other side of the world - nearly 10,000 miles away in Australia.
Gary takes up the story: “I’ve always had a soft spot for early Range Rovers. In 1973 as a boy I went with my dad to Norwich to buy a blue two-door Range Rover that he drove for years. I have so many happy memories of that car, particularly in the summer when we would drive from East Anglia to Cornwall for family holidays. Dad owned a village garage and he knew his Range Rovers. Anybody who had trouble with their Range Rover always called him, including mechanics at the local Land Rover garages. I always promised myself that I would own a Range Rover myself, one day.
“Six years ago I got the chance to buy WEY 72M. It was bought new in 1971 by the owner of Castle Cement and was factory-fitted with an early Warn winch, complete with a sloping front grille to accommodate it. It was incredibly rare and it’s the only one I’ve ever seen.
“He sold it in 1983 to a farmer who used it once a week to tow a cattle trailer to market in Welshpool. It only had 36,000 miles on the clock when I bought it, in 2012. Despite is low mileage, l plan to get it restored in the next year or so. Like all Range Rovers of its age, it’s suffering from rust.”
“I suppose my twodoor Range Rover is my favourite but my Bowler is the one I have most fun in”
Well, not all Range Rovers, actually. The one beside it spent 46 years in the arid, salt-free climate of Australia, and it hasn’t got a hint of corrosion, as Gary explains when he reveals how it came into his possession.
“Four years ago, we were holidaying in Cornwall with my in-laws when one of their friends, an Aussie chap called Richard, dropped in to visit. We got chatting and when he found out I loved Land Rovers he told me he had got some old Land Rovers back home in Australia, including an early two-door in Bahama Gold. He couldn’t believe I’d got one almost exactly the same. What a coincidence! We got on really well and kept in touch afterwards.
“Sadly, two years ago Richard died. But his widow came over to the UK and told me she would like me to buy his Range Rover. We agreed a price and I sorted out the shipping, from Adelaide.
“When it arrived I couldn’t believe how good it was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rust-free classic Range Rover before. It must be the only one still on its original inner wings, sills and boot floor. They’re all there. I’m just waiting for the paperwork to be completed so that I can get a UK age- related registration for it.”
The Land Rovers Gary shows me today aren’t his only ones – they’re just his favourite five. He also owns a Discovery 4, a Discovery 2, an 80-inch Tomcat racer and an 88-inch Land Rover off-road special.
“I suppose my two-door Range Rover is my favourite, but my Bowler is the one I have most fun in,” he says. “My first Land Rover was a Series IIA diesel, that I bought in 1982, when I was 18. I’m 53 now and I can’t remember all the Land Rovers I’ve had since. I’ve sold two Land Rovers that I now regret selling. One was a 1989 Ninety V8 County Station Wagon and the other an 86-inch Series I.”
Gary isn’t a rich collector with more money than sense. He’s an ordinary family man who works as a builder and just happens to love Land Rovers.
“It’s fair to say it’s an expensive hobby, but I’ve never bought anything I can’t afford,” he says. “And there’s always room for another one in the garage. My next-door neighbour has a 1951 80-inch Series I and I must admit I do fancy one myself. If that ever comes up for sale, or I get offered something similar, I might just be tempted…”