Background
It’s really not an exaggeration to say that the Land Rover has done almost as much as Captain Cook or David Livingstone to open up the world.
It’s been taking explorers with double-barrelled names and extravagant moustaches to far-flung places since 1948, and stoically delivering engineers to where they were wanted and needed, and missionaries to where they were neither.
It was once said that a Land Rover was the first motor vehicle seen by 60% of people living in developing nations.
Perhaps uniquely, the Land Rover is both classy and classless.
It can be deployed to ferry loads of floppy-haired Ruperts and Annabels up and down the Kings Road, or it can haul half a dozen Herdwick sheep and a tonne of fence posts over rough terrain on a Lake District hill farm.
You can use it as a picnic venue while you’re stuffing yourself with quail eggs in the car park at Twickenham/Ascot/Henley/Glyndebourne.
Or you can make the most of its bullet-proof bush-bashing capabilities and get yourself from Timbuktu to Ouagadougou quicker than an angry camel.
It’s whatever you want or need it to be.
The Land Rover was introduced following World War II by the Rover Company, and - through various upgrades, face-lifts and model changes - remained in production until 1983, when it was re-named, re-badged and upgraded into the equally-iconic Defender.
The Series I was designed for off-road, agricultural and light-industrial use, utilising a steel box-section chassis and an aluminium body, due to the ongoing metal shortage following the end of the war.
For those of us of a certain age, the fact that the Land Rover Series II was launched more than sixty years ago is hard to believe.
Aesthetically a massive improvement over the previous model thanks to its rather more curvaceous body, it was a welcome update for those folk for whom Solihull’s finest provided the only viable transport to get them around their farms, across vast uncharted swathes of the developing world, or somewhere dangerous deep behind enemy lines.
For the Series IIA the diesel engine was enlarged to 2,286cc and a new 12-seater model introduced on the longer (109") wheelbase chassis.
But you really need to buy a Series III if you hanker for a classic Land Rover of the old-school, leaf-sprung variety, but require a few ‘modern’ concessions to safety, comfort and driveability – albeit very minor ones.
You still get the bouncy ride, four-speed gearbox and overall sense of function over form. The main differences over earlier models are the revised dash layout, with instruments moved from the centre of the bulkhead to a modern (ish) binnacle in front of the driver, set in a newly padded dashboard for crash safety (sort of) and the addition of synchromesh to all four gears – something which makes a Series III much easier (relatively) to drive than a Series IIA.
External tweaks were mostly limited to updated hinges and a new plastic radiator grille, and under the bonnet the compression ratio was raised to 8:1.
Overall dimensions and mechanical components remained essentially the same, the most popular engine being Rover’s 2.25-litre OHV petrol unit.
Built from 1971 to 1985, Series III examples also come with the bonus of being the more affordable of the pre-Defender Land Rovers.
