Thread: Wagon ho

Finally got the Rover on the road with Victorian old farts rego. This machine was rego'd and on the road in the late 90's. Had a bit of a shunt in the front end before it was taken off the road. It was repaired and the paint that was used ten years previous was sprayed onto the front guard. It's still about four shades off but I'm sure with time it will blend into the rest nicely. Yes I do know the front bar is still bent a bit, will get onto that in the next year or so.
The Vic old farts rego is fantastic, a lot better than the NSW club plates.

The first Landrover had an 80" wheelbase (copied from the Willys Jeep, which in turn copied the Bantam scout car, which in turn copied the Austin Seven). Launched on the market in 1948, the Landrover was a runaway success (sales were limited by production capacity until the 1970s!), but customers soon complained about the lack of load carrying room.

To satisfy this the wheelbase was increased to 86", and a long wheelbase of 107 introduced, about 1954. As mentioned above, these increased by two inches in 1956, and remained the same until the end of Series production.

Although many quite major changes were made to Landrovers from 1948 to 1957, the name Series 2 was introduced in 1958, and the term Series 1 was used retrospectively for all previous Landrovers. Series 2 was restyled and had pendant pedals, but was otherwise little different from the earlier models. The 2.25 petrol replaced the 2.0, but not immediately for swb.

The introduction of the 2.25l diesel to replace the 2.0l diesel in 1961 brought in the term 2a, which remained despite changes greater than this until the Series 3 in 1973 brought in a plastic dash and grille. Again, the name remained until 1984, despite quite major changes.

With the coil sprung versions the term 'Series' was dropped and they were simply Landrover 110 and later Landrover 90. The 130 was introduced during this period, but did not get its own name until later.

With the introduction of the Discovery in 1989, the name 'Landrover' was changed from a model name to a marque, so a new name was needed for what had previously been simply Landrovers, and the name 'Defender' was chosen.

John