The History of Land Rover
The birth of the Land Rover was in September of 1947 when brothers Spencer and Maurice Wilks put forward the Land Rover project to the board of directors at Rover Car. The first Land Rover was designed in the United Kingdom; the prototype was built upon on a Jeep chassis and named the 80” (taken from its wheel-base) although Land Rovers didn’t make a public appearance until April 1948. What follows is a brief history of the Land Rover marque: -
Land Rover Timeline
Rover Cycle Company Limited
(Before 1906)
The Rover company starting its life producing cycles.
Rover Company Limited
(1906-1936)
The Rover company stops making cycles and begins producing prestige cars.
Rover War effort
(1937-1945)
The Rover factories produce various parts for war vehicles including tank and aircraft engines.
Land Rover Series I
(1948 - 1958)
Land Rover model(s): 80", 86", 88"/107", 109"
Land Rover Series II
(1958 - 1961)
Land Rover model(s): 88"/109"
Land Rover Series IIA
(1961 - 1971)
Land Rover model(s): 88"/109"
Land Rover Series III
(1971 - 1985)
Land Rover model(s): 88"/109"
Land Rover Lightweight
(1968 - 1983)
Land Rover model(s): 88"
Defender
(1983 - 1984)
Land Rover model(s): 90/110
Discovery
(1990)
Discovery is launched.
New Range Rover
(1994)
Land Rover launch a re-modelled "P38 Range Rover".
Freelander
(1997)
Land Rover launch the Freelander to compete with the small 4x4 market.
Discovery Series 2
(1998)
Range Rover MK3
(2002)
Discovery 3
(2004)
The Land Rover Symptom Driven Diagnostic (SDD) is being introduced to improve the diagnostic capability. SDD represents a leap forward in diagnostic technology for current vehicles, combining the ease of use and familiarity of previous diagnostic systems with an up to date and enhanced software.
On the 22nd September 2009 Les Potts attended the Land Rover 2010 Model Year update course at the Land Rover Technical Academy 1 Bird Road, Warwick, CV346TB. The course is designed to enhance the understanding of the Land Rover 2010 model year changes.
Land Rover’s Global Technical Reference (GTR) has been replaced by a new Jaguar Land Rover web-site which will offer access to the technical and owner documentation that you currently access via the GTR website.