They think it’s Land Rover. It is now
As production of the iconic Defender heads off road for ever in Britain, Bear Grylls and Virginia McKenna help to build car number 2 MILLION
PRODUCTION of the iconic Land Rover Defender will finally cease in the UK in December after an extraordinary 67 years. But not before it passes one last major milestone.
To celebrate the two-millionth Defender, Land Rover has created a oneoff design, invited some famous Defender die-hards to build it, and will auction it for charity as the famous Solihull, East Midlands, assembly line shuts down.
Adventurer Bear Grylls and TV presenter Monty Halls shared the fitting of Defender 2,000,000’s wheels.
‘It has been the unsung hero of a lot of our expeditions,’ says Grylls. ‘On telly, you might see me flying in on a helicopter and rappelling out, but what you don’t see are the four or five Defenders on the ground, getting the crew and their equipment into some very difficult places.
‘It has saved my backside more often than I can say.’
And Halls adds: ‘I’ve always been a Defender man, right from my days in the Marines. If there’s one vehicle you want to be sitting in when things start going wrong, it’s the Defender. It’s my magic carpet.’
The proceeds of the Bonhams auction will go to two charities that have long relied on the Defender. The Red Cross took delivery of its first two in 1953 and since then 120 Red Cross Land Rovers have brought aid to more than 800,000 people.
And Land Rovers starred alongside Virginia McKenna and husband Bill Travers in the 1966 hit Born Free. The film inspired them to found their wildlife charity The Born Free Foundation, which now uses Defenders in its conservation projects around the world.
McKenna also joined the production line, fixing number plates to the finished car. She was joined by her son and Born Free president Will Travers.
‘I think in a way, the Defender is the defender of wildlife,’ she said. ‘The whole Land Rover Defender story has been part of our family’s story too. The memories are very strong.’
The original Land Rover was first sketched in the sands of Anglesey’s Red Wharf Bay by brothers Spencer and Maurice Wilks in 1947. The brothers ran the Rover car company and they designed their Land Rover to use the plentiful warsurplus Birmabright aluminium and minimal rationed steel. It was intended as a stop-gap model until post-war austerity eased, but it proved a colossal hit. Production began in Solihull in 1948. The British Army placed a huge order the following year, and the Land Rover soon became the vehicle of choice for adventurers and aid agencies around the world.
European Union emissions legislation finally killed off the Defender, but an allnew version is being designed and will go into production from 2018 in Slovakia.
The two millionth example gets a unique design which features the outline of Red Wharf Bay in its aluminium front wing and its seat fabric. A special plaque bears the signature of everyone who helped build it. The end of production of the original has caused values of classic Defenders to spike, and this very special one-off will sell for well into six figures.
‘You develop a bond with the things you depend on, and I have a great bond with the Defender,’ adds Grylls. ‘It really is a part of British automotive history.’