Thread: Tracking down a S3 protoype

Are you sure of the chassis number?

973 is a unique prefix that doesn't match any other vehicles.

What I am assuming is that this was actually a development vehicle. There were a few, including a Falcon engined and a 4.4V8 vehicle tested by Leyland Australia in the early 1970s.

The prototypes were built in the UK and usually had a sequence similar to 109/1 88/1 etc.

Hi Lotz-A-Landies,

Thanks for the quick response.

From what I gather, the guy developed the P76 and the S3 so he had prototypes around and I'm not surprised the chassis number is particular to the year of development.

This is all the information that I have to hand although I'll ask my mate if he's got any more data or general background information on the vehicle.

Cheers

Bobby

Hi Bob

Bobslandies and I were supporting the "1974 KLG Rally of the Hills" around Oberon State Forests. The third Land Rover in our group was the Leyland Australia SIII development vehicle with the Falcon engine.

I still think we are still confusing the SIII prototypes which were UK projects and the Australian development of the SIII with an engine more appropriate for the Australian market. What they did in Australia was take the production SIII and re-power it. It eventually lead to the 4BD1 in the SIII Stage 1, which was restricted to the Australian market.

As for the number, I was wondering if the "7" was actually a "1"? Although the "7" may well have been to identify the V8! We may even find that the "98" and "99" prefixes were for the other development vehicles and the reasons the numbers are unidentified is because they never went into production..

Diana

Hi Diana,

I found some more info having asked my mate to double check. he replied as follows:

Just spoke to the old man and he said that the serial numbers are correct.</SPAN>

The landrover that I had was the protype (not development) of the first Australian made chasis. Leyland Australia/pressed metal built a long wheel base and a short wheel base series III from scratch in Australia, drove them around NSW and then pulled them apart at pressed metal at enmore to test the chassis build jigs. Once they put it back together they were not able to sell them so my grandfather bought both (he ran leyland and pressed metal) and sent them upto the farm . They were both 4 cylinder petrol vehicles.

Do you know of anyone who might know the whereabouts of the LWB or of this Ray Trott character? Do you think it's worth posting on any other forums? My mate's very keen to find out where it is.

I appreciate your help by the way!

Bob

Ray Trott was/is a member of the Land Rover club of Victoria would be worth looking for him on that forum

Sorry - I am a bit confused - what were they the prototypes of - the Aust Stage 1s ???.

If normal series 3s then why protype them as they already existed at this time - why would you need to build chassis etc from scratch when they already existed??

Thanks

Garry

Dfendr - thanks mate - I've contacted them. My compliments on your avatar.

Garry - I'm no expert as I've only just started looking into this but I understand that there was a big issue with LR not being able to meet the demand for vehicles in Australia and that they were arriving here in kit form needing to be assembled, so I'm assuming that's why Leyland Australia/ Pressed Metal wanted to start building them here from scratch....thus the development and testing.

I could be wrong...but it's certainly enjoyable digging around to find out all of this wonderful vehicle history.

Bob

Originally Posted by The Cone of Silence

Hi Diana,

I found some more info having asked my mate to double check. he replied as follows: <snip>

Do you know of anyone who might know the whereabouts of the LWB or of this Ray Trott character? Do you think it's worth posting on any other forums? My mate's very keen to find out where it is.

I appreciate your help by the way!

Bob

After a decade of looking I'm still trying to find the prototype SIII 1 Ton Land Rover that was driven out from the UK to Australia in 1974. Last time I saw it was in Alice Springs in 1981. By that time it was in the hands of an English couple touring the country on holidays but was missing it's powered trailer (Scottorn-Bushmaster, also likely a prototype trailer).

The sad thing was that the trailer drive and coupling was still on the vehicle, but the owners knew nothing of the trailer. It meant that there was a powered trailer sitting somewhere which had no way of being powered.