For years, the whereabouts of this launch Land Rover had been a mystery. The demonstration car from the Amsterdam show was final on the road in the 1960s, right after which it spent 20 years in a Welsh field prior to getting purchased as a restoration project it then lay languishing unfinished in a garden. Following its surprise discovery just a couple of miles outdoors of Solihull, UK, exactly where the automobile was initial constructed, the professionals at Jaguar Land Rover Classic spent months researching in business archives to unravel its ownership history and confirm its provenance.
The team behind the productive Land Rover Series I Reborn programme, which enables clients to personal a slice of Land Rover history with meticulously restored Series Is, will now embark on their most difficult project however: A year-extended mission to preserve this historically substantial prototype and allow it to be driven once more.
Tim Hannig, Jaguar Land Rover classic director, stated, “This Land Rover is an irreplaceable piece of globe automotive history and is as historically crucial as ‘Huey’, the initial pre-production Land Rover. Beginning its sympathetic restoration right here at Classic Works, exactly where we can make certain it is place back collectively precisely as it is meant to be, is a fitting way to commence Land Rover’s 70th anniversary year.
“There is something charming about the fact that exactly 70 years ago this vehicle would have been undergoing its final adjustments before being prepared for the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show launch where the world first saw the shape that’s now immediately recognised as a Land Rover.”
The Jaguar Land Rover Classic team will adhere to a committed method to restore the launch car, which has a lot of unique functions that are distinctive to the 48 pre-production Land Rovers that had been made prior to the mass production autos, such as thicker aluminium alloy physique panels, a galvanised chassis and a removable rear tub. The patina of its elements will be preserved, such as the original Light Green paint applied in 1948.
The earlier owners of this historic car are getting invited to Jaguar Land Rover’s Classic Works facility to share their experiences and to witness its loving restoration.
This landmark project, representing the earliest beginnings of the Land Rover story, which led to much more than 67 years of continuous production of iconic Series I to Defender autos at Solihull, is the initial in a series of stories and events that will celebrate the previous, present and future of Land Rover all through 2018. Follow the story on Instagram @LandRover.
Since 1948, Land Rover has been manufacturing genuine 4x4s that represent accurate ‘breadth of capability’ across the model variety. Defender, Discovery, Discovery Sport, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and Range Rover Evoque each and every define the world’s SUV sectors, with 80 per cent of this model variety exported to more than 100 nations.
Information Source: Muscat Daily