Chassis No.

26630208


Engine No.

26130348



Conceived in the years of postwar austerity as light utility transport for the farm and the smallholding, the Land Rover borrowed its philosophy from the wartime Jeep and its mechanical hardware from the Rover P3 saloon.

Steel rationing dictated aluminum alloy body panels, reinforced with galvanized steel cappings and set upon a heavy box-section ladder frame that gave the car formidable strength.

Selectable four-wheel drive and a low-range transfer case completed a package intended to work anywhere, in any conditions, and to keep working long after more sophisticated machinery had failed.

That reputation for near-indestructibility, together with the honest simplicity of the earliest 80-inch cars, has made the original Series I among the most sought-after of all Land Rovers.



This Series 1, chassis number 26630208, is an early 80-inch example built as a complete knock-down (CKD) kit at Solihull and dispatched on 19 December 1951 to...