Sunday 2 August 2015

Land Rover Series One 1 80" Feb 1950, RHD, lights behind grille model, Barn find Incredibly solid, dry stored for 24 years, WD supplied

Sellers Comments -
Introduction:

I have been the happy custodian of this Solihull treasure for the last nine years: where it has sat quietly in the back of the garage and always aroused much interest...

We have a Land Rover garage here in Normandy, specialising in Range Rover Classics, but we love anything from the Green Oval stable: we have just had a beautiful baby boy join the family, and I'm now struggling to convince my good lady wife why I need thirty-seven Land Rovers!! Hence it is now (reluctantly) up for sale...

The Landy is in remarkably good and almost completely rust-free condition, which is why I bought it. It was last on the road in 1991, and has been correctly dry-stored ever since...

A little about the known history of the car:

This car left the production line in February 1950, and was part of a government War Department contract: it's original military registration number was 18 BC 76 , and it still has the W^D brass plaque on the bulkhead. The Chassis number is of the R061 series, which dates it as a '50 model year RHD home market model...

A plaque on the rocker cover shows that it was overhauled in Ashford, Middlesex in September 1956, under repair order number 11620.

I have no idea of it's disposal date, and would love to here from any series one buffs  who may be able to add further information...

It came over to France in the mid-eighties, and was sold to the head of a well-known French arms manufacturer for use on his country estate. ( I shall make no allusions to the production of rubber rifles that simply bounce when dropped, as my French lady wife will undoubtedly read this: I will therefore allow you to draw your own inferences...)

At some point during his tenure, the engine was removed due to a broken crankshaft, and the Landy was fitted with a petrol engine which, I am informed, was taken from a Hotchkiss jeep. Not long thereafter, he sold the car to a friend of his, who used it until 1991, intending to repair the original motor.


It sat in a corner of his stables, patiently awaiting an engine rebuild that never took place, for a further fifteen years, before I purchased the Landy in 2006...
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