Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World. Ben Fogle

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СКАЧАТЬ introduction of the Land Rover marked a fresh start at the company’s new Solihull premises, and the enthusiasm of the management for the vehicle was such that it even axed its plans for its projected ‘mini’ car, the M1 (which had reached prototype stage by 1946), in favour of the newcomer.

      The first Land Rover prototype was built in the summer of 1947. Its chassis came from a Willys Jeep, as did the axles, wheels and leaf-spring shackles. It is believed that other components, such as the springs, shock absorbers, bearings, brakes and brake drums, were also of Jeep origin, along with the transfer box and several transmission parts, including propshafts, universal joints and handbrake. The engine was an under-powered 1389cc unit from a Rover saloon. The car differed from the Jeep in that it had a more cramped driving position, because Rover wanted to provide the largest possible payload area in the back and so moved the driver’s seat forwards three inches to achieve it. Comfort was extremely rudimentary: just a plain cushion in the middle of the metal seat box, which also covered the fuel tank. With the export market in mind, the vehicle had a tractor-like, centrally-mounted steering wheel to save building separate left- and right-hand-drive models. Thus it became known as the Centre-Steer.

      Today, the Centre-Steer prototype is the Holy Grail to many Land Rover enthusiasts. That’s because apparently no trace of it exists; although some very respected Land Rover experts are convinced it does. In fact, some believe several Centre-Steers are secreted away somewhere.

      The official line is that this very first 1947 Land Rover was abandoned to rot in a shed somewhere in the Rover works at Solihull and was eventually thrown away during a spring-clean. It had certainly disappeared completely a few years later. Some say its remains were shovelled ignominiously into a skip and went for scrap. Others believe an employee with a better sense of history than his bosses succeeded in spiriting away the remains for preservation.

      Either way, the Centre-Steer, cobbled together mainly out of Jeep parts, is actually a bit of a red herring when it comes to the genesis of the Land Rover that would eventually go into production. Rover’s engineers quickly realised that the Centre-Steer wasn’t a viable proposition and opted instead for the conventional wisdom of separate right- and left-hand-drive vehicles. Although the development engineers borrowed some ideas from the Jeep – notably the 80-inch wheelbase – the parts for the new vehicle were all designed and built by Rover. Work continued through 1947 and in February 1948 they began to build the first pilot prototypes. It had been decided that the new vehicle – by now christened the Land-Rover (note the hyphen between ‘Land’ and ‘Rover’, which wasn’t lost until a decade later) – would be launched at the Geneva Motor Show in early March, but it soon became clear that the prototypes wouldn’t be completed in time, so it was decided that it would launch at the Amsterdam Motor Show instead.

      Thus it was, in the Dutch capital, on 30 April 1948, that the Land Rover legend was born. Two prototypes – left- and right-hand-drive variants – were on public display. One was a standard model, the other equipped by PTO (power take-off)-driven welding equipment, to demonstrate the versatility of the strange-looking little vehicle.

      The initial 80-inch wheelbase Land Rovers that were sold to the general public remained very agricultural in every respect. Heaters were non-existent, as were passenger seats, door tops and roofs, but that hardly mattered because cabs and hard tops were yet to be introduced and Solihull’s new arrival was intended to be very much open plan, with the driver exposed to the elements. Nothing unusual there; contemporary tractors, combine harvesters and other farm machinery of that era didn’t have modern comfortable cabs either.

      Nobody minded the Spartan comforts anyway once they had encountered the new vehicle’s amazing capabilities. They didn’t even bat an eyelid when the original purchase price of £450 was jacked up to £540 in October 1948. The first year’s production was 3048, but this more than doubled to 8000 the following year, doubling again to 16,000 in 1950. What had been seen as a stop-gap exercise, cobbled together from Rover car components and other bits copied from the original Jeep, was now a very important vehicle in its own right, and one that would eventually outsell – and indeed outlive – Rover cars. The company clearly had a success story on its hands.

      Land Rover plodded on. There were developments aplenty in the following years, but they were evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Today, more than 60 years on, you can stand one of the last Defenders alongside the earliest Series I and there’s no mistaking the family resemblance.

      The first prototypes were powered by a 1398cc engine, which developed a mere 48bhp. This, however, was deemed inadequate, so the production vehicles were equipped with the 1595cc side-valve unit that had been designed for the Rover P3 60 saloon car. Various drivetrain and axle changes along the way were also dictated by contemporary saloon variants until, in August 1951, the vehicle received the very welcome 1997cc overhead valve engine, which delivered a 26 per cent increase in torque at low engine speeds.

      In 1953, the wheelbase was extended to 86 inches, and a long wheelbase version at 107 inches was also introduced. In 1956, these were further extended to 88 and 109 inches to accommodate the bigger 2052cc diesel engine, which became available for the first time a year later.

      The very earliest Land Rovers were available in light green only. Legend has it that the company managed to secure a bulk purchase of war surplus paint used to decorate the interiors of RAF bombers, and it was only when that ran out that Land Rovers were sold in the familiar dark green (known as Bronze Green) now synonymous with the marque. It was some years before further colour options – blue and grey – became available.

      Although the choice of paintwork was limited, the sky was the limit as far as other options went. The simple, bolt-together construction of the vehicle and its generous provision of power take-off points meant that it could be readily adapted for industrial as well as agricultural use. In fact, a fire-engine variant had been included among the original prototypes, proving that the company was on the ball from the start. Mobile compressors and welders were among the special vehicles available direct from Solihull, but like the 1948 coach-built Tickford Station Wagon, they were not a financial success. Also, many modified variations on the Land Rover theme were – and still are – produced by independent specialists. Today, these are mainly luxury, bespoke variants created by companies like Nene Overland (who produced my own distinctive set of wheels).

      The Tickford Station Wagon, Land Rover’s first foray into comfortable transport, failed because of the eye-watering levels of purchase tax imposed by the government on luxury goods in the immediate post-war years. However, the company returned to the abandoned Station Wagon theme late in 1954 with a seven-seater on the short wheelbase 86-inch chassis, and accommodation (albeit rather cramped) for ten in the long wheelbase 107-inch version. Alloy-framed bodies replaced the expensive wooden frames of the earlier Tickford version and, although the long wheelbase model in particular looked for all the world as though it had been assembled from a Meccano set, both were an immediate and enduring success.

      Enthusiasts love the rugged simplicity of the Series I. Its lack of creature comforts and austere lines give it an aesthetic purity unrivalled by any other motor vehicle, before or since. But it is also a brilliantly practical vehicle for travel in the most remote parts of the world, and, like many early Land Rovers, much revered and much sought-after.

      CHAPTER TWO

       THE RANGE OF ROVER

      HOW LAND ROVER BECAME THE MODERN EXPLORERS

      Britain has a long heritage of exploration and adventure; Captain Cook, Captain Scott, Ernest Shackleton, СКАЧАТЬ