The Willys-Overland Jeep had mechanical issues once more, and it wasn’t the primary time.
Maurice Wilks used the Jeep on his farm in Newborough, Anglesey, Wales, a lot as many Jeep house owners had carried out. But its reliability proved problematic. But in contrast to different Jeep house owners, Wilks was ready to do one thing about it. He was the pinnacle designer for the British automobile firm Rover, the place his brother Spencer Wilks was managing director.
Wilks determined to create a extra dependable Jeep for Rover, one that might debut on the Amsterdam Motor Show this week in 1948 because the Land Rover Series 1.
It all begins on two wheels
Rover traces its roots again to 1877, when John Starley establishes a bicycle firm in Coventry. But it was improvement of the Rover Safety Bicycle in 1884 that proved revolutionary. Starley’s concept had come from his earlier enterprise, Coventry Machinists, which had gained a contract to fabricate 500 velocipedes.
Like many bicycle producers, Starley was engaged on making biking safer. High-wheelers, popularly often known as an Ordinary, have been best-suited for tall athletic males and have been designed to journey better distances with every pedal stroke. But they have been additionally harmful, because the rider’s middle of gravity was solely barely behind the massive entrance wheel, that means it was pretty simple to be despatched flying over the handlebars head first.
Starley’s reply was the 1884 Rover Safety Bicycle, a rear-wheel drive, chain-driven bicycle, moderately than the direct drive Ordinarys then being provided. However, it could be one other yr, and the introduction of the 1885 Rover Safety Bicycle that might show revolutionary, with equal-sized wheels, chain pushed rear-wheel drive and the rider positioned father again from the entrance wheel.
By 1889, it had change into what anybody would contemplate a contemporary bicycle, as stable rubber tires gave option to John Dunlop’s pneumatic tires mounted to a diamond-shaped body. The firm proved profitable sufficient to go public in 1896, by which level the producer was often known as Rover Cycle Co. Ltd. The firm started investigating bikes the next yr, providing their first one in 1902, the yr after Starley’s demise.
By 1904, the corporate launched its first automobile powered by a 1.3-liter single-cylinder gasoline engine. The group would go on to change into Rover, the automotive firm for which Wilks and his brother labored.
Birth of an off-road legend
Having used his cantankerous Jeep for farm work, Starley supposed his new car to be the right farm implement, as useful as a tractor however much more versatile. Spencer and Maurice met on Maurice’s farm on the Anglesey shore to hash out the form of car they might construct. What they needed was needed was “an all-purpose vehicle on the lines of the Wills-Overland Jeep,” based on firm paperwork. As they talked, Maurice drew the define of the automobile within the sand.
Literally, a line within the sand had been drawn; Rover would produce their first SUV.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Maurice and Spencer started working constructing a prototype utilizing a Willys-Overland Jeep chassis and axles. Initially, a center-mounted steering wheel was thought of so it could possibly be exported to markets with left- or right-hand aspect drive, however this concept was quickly deserted in favor of a extra typical association.
For energy, they accessed the corporate pantry, utilizing a prewar-designed 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine produced 50 horsepower, mated to a 4-speed handbook transmission and everlasting four-wheel drive with a 2-speed switch case. Uniquely, the Land Rover Series 1 was fitted with a Power Take-Off unit, so it could possibly be used to energy farming tools. The Jeep chassis was supplanted by the corporate’s personal box-section ladder-frame chassis with an 80-inch wheelbase.
Its boxy physique was constructed principally from aluminum, which was much more plentiful than metal, because it was getting used for manufacturing army plane. Given the surplus provide of plane cockpit paint, it’s no shock that early Land Rovers have been provided in various shades of sunshine inexperienced with a canvas roof and a Spartan demeanor; Passenger seat cushions, doorways, a heater and spare tires have been elective.
The new car went from idea to manufacturing in a mere 10 months.
Land Rover outlasts its mother or father
Unveiled on the Amsterdam Motor Show and priced at £450, it grew to change into successful for Rover, with manufacturing reaching 16,000 items yearly by 1950. By this level, Rover additionally provided the Land Rover Station Wagon with a physique by Tickford, who usually constructed coachwork for Rolls-Royce and Lagonda.
With seating for seven, this opulent wagon featured leather-based seats, a heater, a one-piece windshield, and employed aluminum sheet metallic over a wood body, in contrast to different Land Rovers. The Land Rover’s reputation continued unabated. Winston Churchill obtained one as an eightieth birthday current in 1954. The Series I Land Rover featured an extra-wide passenger seat and a heated footwell.
Slowly the Series 1 developed, including a selection of selectable two-wheel or four-wheel drive, and happening via completely different iterations, together with the Series II in 1958, the Series IIA in 1961 and the Series III in 1971, by which level it was often known as the Defender.
The identify change coincides with the launch of the Range Rover in 1970, marketed as “a car for all reasons.” While the brand new mannequin preserved the unique Land Rover’s off-road proficiency, it was loaded with creature comforts, and result in a line-up of luxurious off-road autos that outlived its company mother or father, Rover.
A collection of homeowners
In 1994, the Rover Group could be acquired by BMW, with Land Rover being acquired by Ford in 2000 and paired with Jaguar, which it had purchased the yr earlier than. Rover would disappear, aside from Mini, whereas Jaguar and Land Rover have been offered to India’s Tata Motors in 2008, which nonetheless owns the pair — now one firm — right this moment.
In April, the Indian-owned British auto firm often known as Jaguar Land Rover renamed itself JLR, with the Land Rover badge being dropped. Instead, will provide 4 manufacturers, three of them Land Rover-derived. They embody Defender, Discovery Range Rover and Jaguar. The transfer is supposed to “amplify the uniqueness of our characterful British marques,” mentioned Gerry McGovern, the corporate’s chief inventive officer.
It’s unclear, although, whether or not the Land Rover moniker will totally disappear.
“Land Rover will remain. It is strong, well known, and we will use that collective strength to give our brands authenticity and purpose,” a spokesperson informed commerce publication Automotive News Europe. But JLR hasn’t totally defined the way it will reconcile that with its resolution to separate the manufacturers of Jaguar, Defender, Discovery and Range Rover.
Source: www.thedetroitbureau.com