Last year was the 70th anniversary of the Land Rover marque. One of the commemorative events involved a visit to a remote community in West Bengal, deep in the Himalayas. Known as the “Land of Land Rovers,” they are reliant on a fleet of dozens of meticulously maintained Series Land Rovers dating back as far as 1957. The video shows the 31km journey made frequently by the residents of Maneybhanjang, which sits at an altitude of 3,636m.
Tag Archives: Land Rovers
1971 Series IIA Land Rover
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Link to this beauty (I assume they were all out of every other color) showed up in comments on another post. Restoration by Classic Car Studios in St. Louis. Figured it deserved a post. But I’d be much more likely to buy this truck before one of the new Land Rovers.
“Entirely practical”
“This is the sort of vehicle that most of us need, one that is entirely practical… there is no carrying about of weight more or less uselessly devoted to fashionable appearance and not really essential luxury.” — The Autocar (1948)
Came across the quote above in a magazine. True in 1948, less so today (okay, not at all). I’ve been driving mine almost daily for seven months and still having a blast. More Rover love:
“Perfectly reasonable people seem to take leave of their senses upon first meeting a Land Rover. It is less a car than a state of mind. Its owners are the most partisan group imaginable and its would-be owners are legion.” — David E. Davis, Car and Driver
“Yes, it’s loud, and rough, and slow, and unreliable. Yes, the Jeep Wrangler is better than the Defender in every objective way. But that’s the point of the Defender: it’s unique. It’s special. It’s unusual. The Jeep Wrangler is for people who leave their dealership license plate frame on. For people who drive past six gas stations to get to a Texaco two miles from their house because gas there is three cents cheaper.” (Jalopnik)
Cool&Vintage: 1983 Land Rover 110 V8
A gutsy offering from the Cool & Vintage guys. Photos of some of their restorations got me started down the Land Rover path.
Land Rover book (2019)
“When the original Land Rover had been drawn up, there had been no proper styling team at Solihull. The appearance of the vehicle had been dictated partly by its intended function and partly by manufacturing requirements, and nobody had worried too much about what it looked like. This was, after all, a commercial vehicle and buyers were unlikely to set too much store by aesthetics as long as it did the intended job.”
— Land Rover: 65 Years of the 4 x 4 Workhorse by James Taylor (Amazon)
I received this as a Christmas gift. I don’t know if you would have to own and drive one of these old trucks to appreciate the Land Rover story. Maybe. Packed with history.