1 Land Rover Series 1 1948-1957

ENGINE: 1,595CC, 4 CYL TOP SPEED: 58MPH 0-60MPH: N/A

It was first sketched in the summer of 1947 in the sand on a beach in Anglesey where Maurice Wilks, Rover’s chief designer, and his brother Spencer, the company’s managing director, were holidaying.

They were looking for something to tide over Rover’s road-car production, which was hampered by steel shortages. The prototype, called “Centre Steer”, used bits of the Willys Jeep.

Initially the wheelbase was 80in, with a four-speed Rover gearbox, a twospeed transfer box, permanent four-wheel drive and a freewheel device that disengaged the front wheels on overrun. The engine was a 50bhp, 1.6-litre four-cylinder unit from the Rover P3. A more conventional selectable four-wheel drive came in 1951, along with a more powerful 2.0-litre engine with an 86in wheelbase.

They got the prototype on the road in only 10 months and it was launched at the 1948 Amsterdam motor show. Classed as a commercial vehicle (Commercial Motor magazine did the first road test), it was limited to 30mph on road, although that soon changed.

Unbelievably spartan; even door tops, a hood and passenger seats were options. Captivating to drive, an original Landie wanders a bit, is slow and demands concentration, but stay off trunk roads and motorways and it’s like a time machine, transporting you back to a simpler, slower age – and it’s still pretty good off-road.

Why you want one: an original that in many senses was never bettered. Still really capable off-road, quite charming to drive, with cute utilitarian looks.

Why you don’t: it’s stupefyingly uncomfortable, slow beyond belief, heavy, vague steering, the chassis rusts and the earliest models are now really expensive.

You might not know: with steel rationed in the UK, the Land Rover’s body was designed to be made in aluminium alloy from Birmabright and early prototypes were all finished in light-green RAF-surplus cockpit paint.