Land Rover will mark its 70th anniversary with a series of events and celebrations in 2018, beginning with the restoration of the vehicle that started it all – one of the three pre-production Land Rovers shown at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show launch.
This gave the world its first glimpse of the shape that would become instantly recognisable as a Land Rover.
For years the whereabouts of the launch Land Rover was a mystery. The demonstration vehicle from the Amsterdam show 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. Rejuvenation wasn’t to be immediate, however: it then lay languishing unfinished in a garden for several more years.
Following its surprise discovery just a few miles outside of Solihull, UK (where the car was first built), engineering experts at Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works spent months researching in company archives to unravel its ownership history and confirm its provenance.
The team behind the successful Land Rover Series I Reborn programme, which allows customers to own a slice of Land Rover history with meticulously restored Series Is, have now embarked on their most challenging project yet: a year-long mission to preserve this historically significant prototype and enable it to be driven again.
“This Land Rover is an irreplaceable piece of world automotive history and is as historically important as ‘Huey’, the first pre-production Land Rover,” said Tim Hannig, Director at Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works.
“Beginning its sympathetic restoration here at Classic Works, where we can ensure it’s put back together precisely as it’s meant to be. It’s 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.”
The Jaguar Land Rover Classic team will follow a dedicated process to restore the launch vehicle, which has a lot of special features that are unique to the 48 pre-production Land Rovers that were produced prior to the mass production vehicles, such as 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.
Previous owners of this historic vehicle are being invited to Jaguar Land Rover’s Classic Works facility to share their experiences and to witness its restoration.
