‘Missing’ original Land Rover to be restored for carmaker’s 70th birthday
The British automaker will celebrate its 70th anniversary year throughout 2018, starting with a unique restoration project
Land Rover will mark its 70th anniversary by restoring the vehicle that ‘started it all’.
After going missing for two decades, the firm will restore one of the three pre-production Land Rovers it showcased at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show – the vehicle that gave the world its first glimpse of the legendary 4×4.
For years the whereabouts of the vehicle was a mystery. The demonstrator was last on the road in the 1960s, after which it spent 20 years in a Welsh field before being bought as a restoration project; it then lay languishing unfinished in a garden.
Following its surprise discovery just a few miles outside of Solihull– where the car was first built – the experts at Jaguar Land Rover Classic spent months researching in company archives to unravel its ownership history and confirm its provenance.
The Land Rover has a lot of unique pre-production feature including thicker aluminium alloy body panels, a galvanised chassis and a removable rear tub. The patina of its components will be preserved, including the original Light Green paint applied in 1948.
The team behind the Land Rover Series I Reborn programme, which allows customers to own a slice of Land Rover history with meticulously restored Series Is, will now embark on a year-long mission to preserve the prototype and enable it to be driven again.
JLR Classics director Tim Hannig said: “This Land Rover is an irreplaceable piece of world automotive history and is as historically important as ‘Huey’, the first pre-production Land Rover. Beginning its sympathetic restoration here at Classic Works, where we can ensure it’s put back together precisely as it’s meant to be, is a fitting way to start 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.”
