Gary Pusey
Gary unveils the secrets of Land Rover mileage driver, Colin Parkes
the seats were replaced, but we’ve kept things like the roof lining. A Station Wagon was an expensive car in its day, so it was likely used on a shooting estate. I quite like the idea that what we have is the immediate forerunner to the modern Range Rover.
What do your style friends make of it, instead of the typical Porsche 911?
They’ve seen it on Instagram, and there’s obviously a lot of interest there with it, because it goes with the stylish gentleman thing – and though I hate the word – they have become a bit of a ‘cult’ object. I like the fact I’m driving something people love to see.
Did you have any Land Rover memories/experience before this car?
Yes, when I was around 15 years old, a group of us were driven from school in a 1954 long wheelbase Land Rover across Europe to climb in the Austrian Alps. We went over on the hovercraft, and I can remember vividly that crossing, and Cologne cathedral. One thing I don’t remember at all is the discomfort. It wasn’t a Station Wagon, it was a soft top, and there were no seats, we just sat on the bare metal – surrounded by climbing stuff – for however many days it took to cross Europe. I always remembered that and it gave me a spark of interest in Land Rovers.
You’ve just done the North Coast 500 in a Discovery 5, so what’s your take on the rest of the current Land Rover range?
I’ve driven Discovery Sport, Velar and Range Rover Sport and just had a fortnight with the Discovery 5. I’ve got a feel for them and I love them all. A lot of the criticism comes from people who want the vehicles to be fossilised, staying as they were in what they deem their heyday. They’re all now the products of design and engineering departments, working together to put together a modern car. It is meant to be comfortable, with minimum pollution and drive safely from A to B.
You can still have all that, but also be attractive – wherever you see one, you notice them. I think the Evoque is the most attractive car in the range, with the Velar, but the Discovery is very much the perfect car. I love driving the Disco and Velar, but find the technology a little frightening, though I think they couldn’t be better for what they were designed for. There’s no doubt they’re making the products people want, or think they want.
You could argue in getting to this point, that Land Rover’s success since 1989 – since Discovery – is as much a triumph of marketing as engineering.
That’s why influencers currently get involved in promoting items like these with brands. They’re so heavily styled, I can’t really say they’re fashion objects. They’re designed to be objects of aspiration as well as safe, economical transport, which is perhaps a weakness. But they’re responding to what we’re telling them that we want, as buyers.
How have the older, utilitarian vehicles become objects of aspiration then?
I think because of their simplicity. Because they have that basic, clean design which products have when they’re first designed. Like those old Leicas – probably nobody sat down and ‘designed’ them, design came very much from practicality and the purpose of the object. Later, with Land Rovers styling gets involved, and it doesn’t
“When I was 15 I was driven across Europe in a 1954 Series I. I always remember that and it gave me a spark of interest in Land Rovers”
“New and old Land Rovers are both just as desirable but appeal to different requirements”
make them less attractive, but it takes away from the purity of appearance and the classic nature of the original. New and old Land Rovers are both just as desirable, but appeal to different requirements. If you want a vehicle to elicit a response, you’ll buy a Series Land Rover. The classic Land Rover is probably more successful than the modern ones, in that sense.
It is a very individual thing to own. You’re buying something that echoes part of your personality, which a modern car does, but not in the same way. I always look at an Evoque or Velar when one passes, but the rarity of the classic gives them the edge if you’re looking for a response from people.
In a way, that act of eliciting a response echoes what you said earlier about your dress sense. You aren’t just following the herd.
No, exactly, because of the rarity, a Land Rover is a very individual thing to own. It echoes part of you. SO there you are. It seems the current draw of Land Rovers isn’t down to a throwaway fad, but the individuality and honesty of its origins. Buyers like that. As David’s blog readership shows, there’s a growing audience looking for something more than pure marketing hype. Britishness: honesty in engineering and design, and individuality are all qualities seen as a positive in 2019. All qualities that Land Rovers have had since the very beginning.
The engineers who hastily put together a post-war stop gap, unknowingly left us a visual identity and mechanical blueprint that stands out, endures and appeals to this day. The draw isn’t from the surface gloss of marketing posters, but the nuts-and-bolts British individuality born on the engineering drawing boards of Solihull 70 years ago.
In a time when modern cars are alike, uninvolving and characterless, there is little to beat a Land Rover, particularly a classic one. More and more people are being turned on to the unique appeal of Land Rovers. But then, as enthusiasts, we all knew that, didn’t we?