Greetings from the Caribbean (Trinidad). Since high school, I've yearned for a Series Land Rover. Bought myself a Series 3 for my 67th birthday in April and the ground-up restoration is almost done. I strongly feel that the Series is a marvelously engineered utility vehicle, a blank canvas if you will and the owner modifies and tricks it out to suit their unique needs and taste..... mine is no exception. Great to see, Land Rover is taking an interest in preserving this marvel of engineering.
She mentioned Australia but we have many laying around the countryside in New Zealand. I had a series one at school and then followed with many more. Good on you Land Rover UK.
0:10 I'll stop you right there, love. The project is really about making as much money as possible out of owner-tourist bandwagon-jumpers. There you go, corrected it for you. Anyone else remember the days of series land-rover owners sending parts for free around the world to keep old vehicles on the road? None of these restored land-rovers will be anything other than a posh watch or a trophy wife to their new owners. Mine are all still on the road, safe and functional, not afraid of wet or dirt or work and get way more attention than the show-ponies and trailer queens. And no, they're not for sale.
I think the fact landrover are doing this is brilliant. I also think the fact that the landrover brand and heritage is so strong that they are the only vehicle manufacturer with a following strong enough to make this work. It's a great shame then that the modern landrovers are such a departure from those featured here, and that they are no longer built to be farm vehicles, emergency vehicles, expedition vehicles and workhorses. What I will say is that while landrovers history is so strong, there would be no future of the brand without modernisation of design and pioneering. While I don't personally like the look of landrovers future I'm reasonably certain it will be a prosperous one, even if in an altogether different direction. My only hope is that in another 70 years we will look back on their current products with the same sense of nostalgia, and respect.
I own a Series 2A, and have restored it although added a few mod cons to the horror of Land rover aficionado’s. I love the heritage. I love what it stand's for, uncompromising adventure and breaking new ground and you actually can fix it with a piece of number 8 wire. I think though the brand is lost on the new generations, they don't get it, they don't understand at one time the first vehicle 30% of the worlds population had ever seen was a Land rover. At that time the two biggest brands were Jeep and Land rover, now every man and his/her dog is making a 4wd (and super complex, good luck breaking down in the outback), I doubt Land rover can maintain it's brand unless it get's back into agricultural, military etc, times are a changing....
Owning an original Mk II, IIA or Mk III Landy is on my bucket list. They have become luxury vehicles that rival their sibling the Range Rover. I never understood that. The original simplicity of design and minimal maintenance required was what made them popular. I’ve driven more than a few in my time, including the Mk III Lightweight. I remember being stuck on a single track road, ditches either side and needing to perform a ‘three-point turn’ as it were. With three others in the Rover, top down, Sun beating down, I put it in LR 4WD then drive into one ditch and reversed into the other ditch and out again, pointing in the right direction. Back to HR 2WD for the roads and we were off again. My ‘passengers’ freaked out, asking why I hadn’t simply reversed (about 1/10 mile) down the (narrow) track. I suppose I could have done that but it would have taken a lot longer than what I actually did. Oh, and no power steering in that Mk III... I successfully argued the point that time was of the essence, that Rovers are designed to do exactly what I did and that none of them had wanted to drive, despite having held their licences far longer than I had held mine. Literally having passed my test that Spring, I wanted as much experience behind the wheel as possible. When we collected the vehicles, I read all the ‘instructions’ regarding the use of the vehicle on regular roads as well as off-road. I even tried out the LR (Low Ratio) and 4WD gears but made sure to go back to HR (High Ratio) and 2WD for the return trip along a few motorways. Alas, a bloke who was only used to driving 4-ton trucks had also played with the 4WD and LR gears and had somehow left his in LR. His engine eventually packed in along one of the motorways as he was essentially red-lining the engine the whole way just to keep to 40mph in convoy. The MT sergeant opened the bonnet and swore an oath. Oil was everywhere. It was like opening an oven door if you got too close. The driver had to stay with the Rover until a tow vehicle arrived and we were one vehicle short. The driver didn’t catch us up afterwards. We heard he had been sent back to his regiment.
I have a stage 1 v8 s.w.b soft top in Trinidad.. I'm hearing they only made 27 in that configuration . Will you guys be interested in buying or trading.
Land Rover needs to be in English ownership, creating jobs for Englishmen and woman. I can not think what it will be like if we sell Ferrari to China...
