Series One Land Rovers

Many people often ask me what is the fascination with the Old Series One land rovers and indeed when I first bought my series one I used it almost daily in the summer with the hard top and door tops removed lots of people thought I was mad as I had a more modern car also at the time but it was a cheap way to own a convertible

The attraction to the Series 1 landie is simply from childhood a farmer friend of mine had a very early series one landrover with the 1600cc engine and the chain pull gearbox and I was always attracted to its fun drivable and its simplicity , I also like the quirky looks of the series one plus the shorter wheelbase and narrow track make it a very useful off roader

The spares are still very easy to come by and there are a lot of spares that are interchangeable with the Series 2 and Series 3 landrovers , most parts are cheap and there is a great dealer network around for these series spares including the excellent Paddock spares that are local to me

Also with all landrover owners there is a camaraderie and almost a feel that every owner of a land rover including the modern defenders are part of this club , often when driving my land rover defender 110 twin cab I get a wave from a fellow land rover enthusiast or owner there is no other vehicle that has this friendship experience , a good mk1 or Mk2 escort will attract similar respect from people but not to the level we see in the landie owners

They are so simple to work on and to keep running , this is a big bonus to anyone interested in mechanicing including youngsters that are too young too drive, as the Series one was conceived in the late forties and in real terms it was designed as an agricultural tool to replace tractors for a big export drive for the then Rover Cars it was built to be maintained in countries where there is not the knowledge or skill or even equipment and spares that were available in the UK at the time and so they are so good for car enthusiast learning there trade with the spanners

There are some statistic that land rover produced a few years ago that show that over 80% of land rovers ever produced are still on the road today no other car can boast those figure and the land rover also is the first car ever seen in over 60% of the developing countries of the world and has been voted in top gears poll as the greatest cars in the world

And this was all started by the stop gap filler Series One Land Rover