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1948 Land Rover Series 1 The First Pre-production Model

The Land Rover was designed by the brothers Maurice and Spencer Wilks, respectively Chief Engineering and Managing Director of the Rover Company in the late 1940s. Having examined their family-owned Willys Jeep, the brothers were convinced they could produce something superior.

The Land Rover was intended to be a stop-gap vehicle for the new Solihull factory, which had been a shadow factory during the war. Using as little sheet steel as possible in the era of postwar shortages, aluminium was used for the body panels instead.

Within a year it was outselling the Rover cars and production has steadily increased every year since. Its initial layout was based on the Willys Jeep, the Land Rover's dimensions chosen to be very similar, although the Rover P3 engine and transmission was used.

This is the 'number one' pre-production Land Rover and was sold in July 1948 to a farmer in Warwickshire. At the close of its working life it was bought back by the Rover Company to be restored to its original condition. Land Rover production reached one million in June 1976 and, as Defender, reached two million in 2015 before production stopped in early 2016. The last vehicle still showed a clear connection to this, the very first.

Engine: 4 cyl, 1595cc Top Speed: 50mph (80km/h) Power: 50bhp Coachwork: soft top utility Price New: £450