History of Land Rover - Part One #blogpost

This post is about the history of Land Rover, from the Series 1 concept in 1947 to the new Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover Velar and it’s also about the future of Land Rover. This is only the first part where I talk about Land Rover’s history from the first Land Rover Prototype in 1947 to 1985 which is the end of the Stage One V8.

After World War II, The demand for luxury cars was very low, and this left car manufactures with a problem. If no one bought luxury cars which Rover produced then the company would go out of business. So in 1947 Rover’s chief designer Maurice Wilks drew the blueprints from the Land Rover in the sand on the beach in Anglesey.

The concept of the original Land Rover from 1947 had the steering wheel in the middle so Land Rover wouldn’t have to manufacture the Series 1 in LHD for LHD markets and RHD for RHD markets. Rover wasn’t able to manufacture the Land Rover like this because the longitudinally mounted took up a lot of space, therefore the driver didn’t have much leg room. It shared a lot of parts with the Willys MB (Jeep), such as the chassis, axles, steering and body fittings. It has a 1.5 litre straight-four engine, but output numbers are unknown.

The series 1 Land Rover went into production in 1948 with a 1.6-litre petrol engine producing around 50 BHP and a 4-speed manual transmission taken from the Rover P3. It had a limited top speed of 30 mph A 2 litre engine was introduced in 1952. The 86 inch wheelbase was introduced in 1954 which replaced the 80 inch wheelbase. The 107 inch wheelbase pick-up was introduced that same year. The 107 inch wheelbase station wagon was introduced in 1956 whilst all the other body and chassis configurations were extended by 2 inches.

The 2 litre diesel was introduced in 1957. It had an overhead valve layout rather than the inlet-over-exhaust valve layout that the petrol engines had, which as that point was considered out-dated. It produced 52 BHP (Somewhat 2 more than the original 1.6 litre petrol.

The Series 1 was replaced in 1958 by the Series 2. The main reason for the replacement was to create a car that was more “woman friendly”, so not a lot of the vehicle was changed. The main changed made were to the chassis giving the vehicle a wider track, but there were also improvements to the body and engines.

The SWB models had the 2 litre petrol engine that was carried over from the Series 1. The 2 litre produced 52 BHP whilst the LWB models had a 2.25 litre engine producing 72 BHP. A 2 litre diesel was also available.

The Series 2 was replaced by the Series IIA in 1961. The main changed were to the engine, and there were new engines available. The most notable new engine was the 2.6 litre inline-six which was the first non four cylinder engine that Land Rover used. That engine was also used in the Forward Control Land Rovers as well. The inline-six produced 90 BHP @ 4500 RPM and 134 lb•ft @ 1750 RPM. The headlights were moved more to the side to make it safer and so the vehicle was able to be sold in more markets around the world. That change wasn’t made to all vehicles.

The Land Rover Series IIA Forward Control was launched in 1962. It was based on the Series IIA chassis and had the same 2.25-litre petrol engine. The most notable difference between the two was the truck cab that the Forward Control had. The Forward Control was made for military uses, but they were also used for non-military used such as Fire Engines and for farms. The Series IIB Forward Control was launched in 1966. There were many changes made to it, such as a wide track, the addition of the previously said Inline-six, the cab was redesigned to be more modern, and a lot of were made to the chassis and suspension to improve the stability of the vehicle.

Rover realised that there was a market for a more comfortable 4x4 that was better to drive on the road in places where long journeys on bumpy dirt roads in Australia and Africa, and so they started development on the “Road Rover”. The idea of the Road Rover was to have the off-road capabilities of a Land Rover and the comfort of a Rover Saloon/Sedan. Rover was aware that American car manufactures had started developing vehicles for a whole new class of vehicles known as the SUV (sport utility vehicle). Development of the Range Rover as we all know it started in 1967 which was lead by Charles Spencer King who worked on the gas-turbine powered JET1 and T3 experimental prototypes in the 1940s.

When the Range Rover was launched in 1970 it was known as “A Car For All Reasons” because it was able to be a substitute for an Estate/wagon even though it had two doors, it could be used as a van to an extent and it had a capacity of 3.5 tons whilst being able to go off-road which is something that all Land Rover products have to be able to do. It had a 3.5 litre V8 that produced 158 BHP @ 5,200 rpm and 210 lb•ft @ 2,600 RPM, so the Range Rover was able to do speeds of over 100 MPH.

To prove that the Range Rover was able to go off-road as well was the Series IIA which was the utility vehicle of the time. A standard Range Rover did a Pan-American Expedition which took three months to complete. By the end of it, the Range Rover had covered 18,000 miles. This started the long history of Land Rover expeditions. It also did the 1981, 82 and 87 Camel trophies.

By the end of its production in 1996, what was called the Classic Range Rover at that point had bigger Rover V8s and ended up with a 4.2 litre producing 200 BHP. A range of diesel engines came and went with the 300 TDI being the last one. The biggest change over its 25 year production run was the introduction of the four door models in 1981 whilst the two door ended production in 1994.

The series 3 Land Rover was launched in 1971, one year after the Range Rover. It had the same engine options as the series IIA, but also had the same 3.5 litre Rover V8 as the Range Rover although it was detuned from 158 BHP to 91 BHP. It was the first Land Rover to have synchromesh on all four gears. There was a High Capacity Pick Up option to the 109-inch chassis which had a load area that was 25% bigger than the standard vehicles.

The Land Rover Stage One V8 replaced the Series 3 in 1979. It had the same 3.5 litre V8 as the Series 3 and it had the same tune as well, but it had the LT95 gearbox taken from the Range Rover. The most notable cosmetic change was to the grille as it was moved forward. The stage one refers to the first stage of investment by the British Government in the company to improve the Land Rover products (Sort of taken from Wikipedia, but I had no idea about that).

I will post part two in a few days.