Yes, they are the best informed about early Landrovers, as they specialise in Landrovrs up to 1953. However, I suspect you may have to join to get much information from them.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
John
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Yes, they are the best informed about early Landrovers, as they specialise in Landrovrs up to 1953. However, I suspect you may have to join to get much information from them.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
John
There are numerous errors in that timeline. The Series II actually commenced production in 1957 calendar year but were the 1958 "Rover Production Year" models.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
The six cylinder engine actually became available is SIIA forward control export and CKD versions in 1963. However only a single SIIA forward control was produced with the six cylinder engine for the UK "home" market. Therefore for UK customers the six cylinder only became available with the SIIB forward control.
It misses the date of 1965 when the Rover Co Ltd took a controlling interest in the Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd (this put the Land Rover and a significant number of British armoured military vehicles (Saracen, Saladin, Stalwart etc.) manufactured under the one corporate entity but prior to the Leyland Motor Corporation and subsequently with the failing BMC conglomerate making the disastrous British Leyland MC).
It overlooks the Australian variants, the Stage 1 Isuzu and 110 Isuzu and everything since the purchase by Tata of India of Jaguar Land Rover from Ford PAG.
There are a number of myths like this around but it is probably unlikely.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilW
According to Australian records and Mike Bishop (Australian guru on 80" models) 1948 model R860004 (number 4 Land Rover off the production line, HUE166 is R860001) was dispatched out of the Solihull depot on 26/08/48 then delivered to Faulls of Perth and sold to Great Boulder Mines Ltd on 9/10/48. 004 was never registered till the 1990s by a subsequent owner.
R860005 dispatched out of the Solihull depot on 17/08/48 and went to Regents Motors of Melbourne, as did R860026 dispatched out of the Solihull depot on 02/09/48.
R860103 dispatched out of the Solihull depot on 14/09/48 and delivered to Mr H.A. Francis The Rover Co Ltd factory representative in Australia (Melbourne). (This vehicle may actually be R860130 which exists in WA but was noted as being dispatched to Singapore.)
There were brokers in London who would arrange the purchase of a British car and export it anywhere in the World, so there is a possibility that an early Land Rover arrived under these conditions. That being true, and unless it was R860130, it is still unlikely that a vehicle arrived before The Rover Co Ltd were able to deliver demonstrator and other vehicles to the five Rover master distributors around Australia. e.g. the vehicle R860138, dispatched out of the Solihull depot on 16/09/48 (with R860136), arrived in Sydney on 26/11/1948 to Grenville Motors NSW, registered by them on 9/12/1948 and used by them as a demonstrator until 22nd August 1949. Five other vehicles arriving in Sydney in November and early December 1948, (R860136, R860137, R860139, R860164 and R860165) were all sold to customers in December 1948 (2) and Jan/Feb 1949.
Production/dispatch records for Land Rover Solihull factory are available from the British Motor Industry Heritage trust at the Gaydon Museum (for a cost).
Imagine, Noone to wave to :p
And the neighbours saying ' nice Jeep'
The London Motor Show Oct - Nov, so any purchase would have arrived in 49
I don't know if you are aware that a lot of the vehicles in the 1948 London Motor Show were actually pre-production vehicles. (And yes a vehicle ordered at the Motor Show then dispatched to Australia would have been unlikely to arrive till December 48/January 49 at the earliest. (Remember we are talking about immediately post WWII, so the steaming time Southampton to Fremantle at 10 knots is about 47 days excluding stops.))Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyG
Here is an image of the first six Land Rovers in the Grenville Motors allocations book. You will notice both ships arrived in 1948 (November and December)
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...and-rovers.jpg
Other interesting factoids
For those who are interested you will notice the comment "2 seats" and "3 seats": Initially the standard configuration of the early vehicles was a single cushion for the driver with a small padded block as a back rest at the top of the transom, the middle seat remained an option at least until R861306 (April 1949) which is the last occasion when the comment "3 seats" is recorded.
The squabs most of us know as the "sprung shovel" backs were introduced on #860150 so R860136 through R860139 mentioned above originally only had the block for a backrest.
In 1948 SS Port Lyttleton was only a year old.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...016/03/241.jpg
N.B. the other ship mentioned above Port Campbell (2) was a 1922 built freighter survived the war and was scrapped in 1953, both ships were Port Line.
R860584, R860585, R860586 and R860588 were all dispatched to Faull's Perth and were sold to customers in January and February 1949.
Family names of the Faull's customers were: Reuben, Stokes, Whittle and De Pledge.
Whittle was the family name mentioned in the other thread. From this it would seem that the Landrover was in fact one of the first but did actually go through the local Rover dealer.
John
R860585 engine: 860840 dispatched out of the Solihull depot 29/11/48 to Faull's sold to Mrs P. Whittle on 7/02/49 (AFAIK currently lost).Quote:
Originally Posted by JDNSW
This was the 17th vehicle dispatched to Australia and the 4th one sold by Faull's in WA.
So while the information about not seeing another one for some time was probably true it was not the first. Still not a bad thing from the recollections of a 94 year old.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...0585-585-4.jpg
It misses the date of 1965 when the Rover Co Ltd took a controlling interest in the Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd (this put the Land Rover and a significant number of British armoured military vehicles (Saracen, Saladin, Stalwart etc.) manufactured under the one corporate entity but prior to the Leyland Motor Corporation and subsequently with the failing BMC conglomerate making the disastrous British Leyland MC).