The first of the Land Rovers and its amazing rediscovery

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It’s 70 years today that a remarkable car debuted at the Amsterdam motor show. On April 30, 1948, the original Land Rover was unveiled there. Ever since that day, the rugged Land Rover - with its boxy and utilitarian design, plus permanent four-wheel drive - has never been away. Well, the last of the Defenders rolled off the production line in 2016, but there’s no doubt that these cars are still everywhere. Literally.

But one of the the original launch vehicles – the ones that starred at the motor show all those seven decades ago – has. There were three of them on display at the time and the fantastic news is that Land Rover located one of those three show cars just a couple of months ago - after it had been missing for 63 years. The manufacturer is now planning a full restoration of the long-lost 4x4. They found out that the car was sold in 1968 to an owner in Wales, who used it as a static power source. When its engine seized in 1988, it was sold to a man in Birmingham, only to be spotted last year in a garden a few miles from Solihull. Yep, that’s where it was built.

The car comes with all the features of the first batch of 48 pre-production cars, including the aluminium sourced from WW2 fighter planes and a removable rear tub and seems to be in a pretty solid state, too. But then, it's a Land Rover...

(Words editor, pictures Land Rover)

     

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