The word iconic is massively overused these days but there can be no doubt that the Land Rover is truly an icon. Noisy, smelly, uncomfortable, drafty, never fully reliable, costly to buy and run but indefatigable and uniquely beautiful.
"the Land Rover has a special smell" couldn't agree more! I want a 2A as a daily driver and i know i'm young and plan to fully restore one, but i will know all the things that can go wrong with it mechanically as i put it back together!!!
Absolutely love Land Rovers... Owned a Series 2 station wagon. Mitsubishi turbo diesel conversion. ... Overdrive as well... Long gone now, but, I just got a Series One, pick up, left hand drive. .. In Canada... Been chasing this one since 1978... Just got it on my 56th birthday this year.... 3 days ago. All original, un-restored. .. Original windows... 40 years of wishing finally paid off.... Even has the heater in it still...
Old land rovers are cool , but i have seen more 40,60,70, and 80 series Land Cruisers around the world still working than i have seen Land Rovers ,and even less jeeps.
That Philip Bashall is right, I wouldn't drive any other car, I'm on my 6th Land Rover now and quite frankly there's nothing that's been built in the last thirty years I'd consider. Philip Bashall's company actually sold me my first Land Rover. It was a 1966 SIIA LWB ex RAF ambulance that was a display vehicle at the Gaydon Heritage Museum that got damaged and ended up with Dunsfold who very kindly converted it to a pick up truck AND painted it matt black for me. Selling that truck is probably my biggest regret out of all the cars and motorbikes I've ever owned, it was such a beast and such a hard vehicle to drive but it was the greatest thing I've ever driven.
It was all started by the GP - the "General Purpose" vehicle used by the US military during WW2 and built by various manufacturers such as Willys and Ford. The inventor of the Land Rover worked for Rover and had a Willys GP (Jeep) left over from WW2 which he used on his farm. He could not easily get spares in England though, so devised and built a "new" jeep. I only ever rode in a Landy one time. At the end of term at boarding school in Worksop, Notts., I got a lift to the nearby railway station with another lad's father in his Land Rover SWB. We went on the main road for a few miles, which was a smooth road. But the Landy still gave a bouncy ride and flat out managed 50 mph. I was not impressed.
A few years ago I talked for quite a while on the phone with Patrick Hemingway, who ran a safari/hunting concern in Africa for many years. The subject came around to Land Rovers and I mentioned that I had a half dozen or so Series 1s and 2s. He said, "Yes, weren't they were bloody awful! But they were all we could keep running over there". I overhauled the clutch slave today on my recently rescued from a junkyard '62 S2a and I was simply awestruck by the idiotic placement of it, and the sheer mass and complexity of the bracketry. But I love the old things and as I don't have available an affordable young lady in black to lash me with a riding crop, I'll keep working on Landies.
Well, to be fair, part of the reason is that if they don't have access to guest workers they are capable of properly fixing sweet fanny adams. In my opinion though, in the middle of AFN, an old Land Rover is more repairable/bodgeable than anything ever made.
I live in Australia and 99.9% of the 4WDs used in remote areas are Toyota's. The more remote you go the less you see other manufacturers. No one considers much else when your life depends on it. I love the Landrover but in the outback you don't want "repairable" as the top quality you want reliable...
Great, iconic, classless vehicle which makes me proud to own one... usual greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread documentary hyperbole about the British having invented the sun and oxygen that makes me glad I don't live there anymore... they even mention the Jeep in passing, but just gloss over the fact it was the inspiration for the Landy. But returning to the vehicle, a truly great and totally modular classic. Is there any other vehicle you can find in so many different versions and adapted to so many uses, and in so many far--flung corners of the globe? I doubt it.... and dare I say it... "Empire, mate"
Only reason they stop making this original classic due to EU emissions laws but they are still rocking as i type and will likely be around when kids today are adults
"uncle Ray why have you got a railway line on the front?" "Because people the bastard doesn't like to stop quickly" A series 2, lwb railway line bolted to the chassis as a "bumper"(battering ram)
Land Rover isn't a thing of the past at all! I own a Series III. They're being used everywhere and pound for pound, the best offroad vehicle there is. The 2020 Defender is quite another story; it's just like the rest of the others out there, no character! They've gone and botched it up with the fiddly electronics. The ruggedness lay partly in its simplicity!
@@alexanderrosales7675 might be so, 40s; maybe but 70s, and 80s are much much newer so no wonder you'll see a lot of them. The Series Land Rovers are much older, so it's surprising to see there are many more of them than the Cruisers!
Come on ! Let's be honest ! Land Rovers are Awesome ! But the Willys Jeep was the inspiration for it ! I own Both a 44 Willys and a Land Rover 90. I'm not Biased just factual !!
@@macnerd93yes you can, have not heard of CJ series, sold all over the world and was produced under license by Mahindra(India) and Mitsubishi (japan).
If you start counting great sports cars, family cars or luxury sedans over the history of cars, there would be hundreds if not thousands of models. But great off road vehicles.... 10 at best - Willys and classic Land Rover on the top of the list, followed by soviet UAZ, classic Land Cruisers (series 40 to 70), Mercedes/Puch G wagon and it's more militant cousin - Pinzgauer, early models Unimog, original Hummvee and maybe, just maybe German Kubelwagen.
I 100 percent agree with you. I mean he made the Range Rover better but most importantly he should’ve made the defender even more better not by stopping or not wanting to improve it anymore.
Mercedes is still making the G Wagen, Toyota still making the base spec Cruiser. It was pathetic decision to kill it off without a replacement. Australian Army is switched to Mercedes, selling off all LRs, they had 6 wheel drive ones too.
I'm on my 5th Land Rover (I think it's 5). A bit heavy on hyperbole though. Never falls apart? The ergonomics in Series and Defenders have always been terrible. The 1-11 profile seems very similar to the Discovery I and II, do you think?
I love booth landrover jeeps and toyotas But I thought jeep was first land rover didnt start all 4wheel drive I thought jeep phantom and williys started that
First of all the British did not invent then the Americans did! They are designed off of the willys jeep of WW2. Sorry to bust your bubble. But still an amazing machine and I still love them.
19 years Camel trophy (Land Rover) I urge anyone to watch.....crossing continents world wide.....cancelled now due to computer tech 4x4s......they not to savvy where there is no roads
Computerized electronics have failed my friends and I several times more than mechanical levers have. I was trying to be polite and politically correct, because mechanics have never failed my off road and hunting trips whereas electronics have.
On my own now. Non driver. Miss it so mucm. Big Bertha. For four tiddlers under five. Anything that hits it feels it first. After six years after my husband's death, I miss it, oh, so much. Nobody understands. It's unimaginable. I oh so miss it. I'm lost. Only a series 1;2;3 will understand. Newboys. You have no understanding. ESSEX BOYS
The Chelsea tractors of today....deep pockets and loved/hated by mechanics....Old style, simplicity that crush the new ones, but to each his own. Nuffin like a bit a british mate.
It's a shame that the UK's national pride is now Jaguar Land Rover, owned by, of all places, an India company Tata, and made in China. After BMW and Ford managed to screw up quality. Sorry Brits I hope you get some of it back eventually, now that you have better leadership in Boris Johnson. MUKGA!
