Land Rover Legends
Bicester Heritage, UK 26-27 May
SUMMER. That wonderful time of the year when UK Land Rover fans are spoilt for choice when it comes to shows. So, why create another at the step-back-in-time setting of Bicester Heritage and call it Land Rover Legends?
Three things set this show apart from other Landy shows. It was severely lacking in high-visibility vests, camouflage trousers and chequer plating. The only time chequer plating is cool is if it is factory-fitted, like on Greg King’s extremely low-mileage 50th Anniversary Defender 90. Which is why his near-perfect V8 took second place in the Most Original category. Monique Bass won top honours in this category; your reporter must have walked past her shiny 1991 Discovery 1 a hundred times over the weekend, and each time she would be lovingly polishing it.
Everyone likes a Forward Control, and it was no surprise that Ray Adams’ 1976 101 took first place in the Best Restored category. He rebuilt it over a decade ago, he uses it all the time, and it still looks like it has never seen a single splash of mud.
TV presenter and Land Rover nut Mark Evans interviewed some of those involved with the four ‘star cars’ on display in the main hangar. They included Tim Slessor, who was on the London-to-Singapore expedition in 1955; Bob and Joe Ives, who won the 1989 Camel Trophy; Tim Dines, who owns 1948 pre-production Series I number three; and participants in the record-breaking Range Rover Turbodiesel run at MIRA in 1986.
Perhaps the most storied Land Rover of all was Adam Bennett’s Oxford University Series I, part of that London-to-Singapore expedition before going missing in action. Adam recently tracked it down on the island of St Helena and gave it a sympathetic restoration, receiving the Brian Bashall Memorial Award for his efforts.
JLR Classic showed several cars, including a £150,000 Works V8 Defender and Swampy, the Range Rover Classic it found in a swamp. The show might not (yet) have the numbers of a Billing or Kelmarsh Land Rover event, but it’s the show to attend if you like looking at historically significant Land Rovers and chatting to fellow followers of the faith.