Happy Birthday Land Rover

Land Rover is 60 years old. From humble beginnings as a farm implement cum road transport, Land Rover is the 'must-have' vehicle of the fashion conscious set.

After World War II, the only vehicles available to the British were used pre-war cars and war surplus Jeeps. The British auto industry was facing a steel shortage and the only way to get a steel ration was to build for export - Britain had a crushing war debt to pay and needed foreign exchange. Rover had little in export sales and had to find a way to get into production.


The inspiration came to Rover engineering director Maurice Wilks for a go-anywhere vehicle that could be used to operate farm machinery and also carry people and goods on the road. Starting with a surplus Jeep, Wilks designed an all aluminum body and placed on the Jeep chassis. He designed a center steering setup that would allow the vehicle to be exported to both left and right drive countries. The prototypes were powered with Rover's 1.4 liter four cylinder engine and sported several power take offs to operate agricultural equipment.

Maurice's brother, Spencer, was the managing director of Rover at the time and committed the resources needed to produce the first Land Rover. The Amsterdam Motor Show in April, 1948 was the venue for the introduction of the Land Rover. As you can guess, it was a hit. Soon Land Rovers were exported around the world and was the vehicle of choice of the armed forces of the current and former British Empire as well as explorers and scientists doing field work - the image of the zebra-striped Landie in the film Daktari comes immediately to mind.


Fast-forward to the '70's and Land Rover became weighed down by the same combination of factors that the rest of the British auto industry struggled with. A succession of owners (Rover, British Leyland, British government, various iterations of former BL companies, British Aerospace, BMW, and Ford) tried with varying degrees of success to make Land Rover a profitable, going concern. Today, the Tata conglomerate owns both Land Rover and Jaguar. The early indications are that they intend to take Land Rover even further upmarket. I doubt that power take offs will be on the option list...

Happy birthday, big guy!