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LAN180001 - Edition 2,000
1:43 Scale
The creators of the Land Rover were Spencer Wilks, then managing director of Rover, and his brother, Maurice, then engineering director. They designed the Land Rover as a civilian replacement for the US Jeep, manufactured by Willys-Overland and Ford. They chose 'Birmabright' aluminium-alloy for the body panels, as steel was still strictly rationed after the war, and all Land Rovers since have had aluminium alloy panels. The Land Rover was to be Rover‘s flagship export model, as at the time there were large financial incentives for companies to produce products for export. Rover thought that a 4x4 would appeal to many people, including those living in the developing colonial outposts.
The first Land Rover prototype was built in the summer of 1947, and all the early prototypes had a tractor-like centrally-mounted steering wheel. This was done to save money building separate left- and right-hand drive models for export. However, by the time the production Land Rover appeared in 1948, the centre-steer idea had been scrapped. The Land Rover range was improved and expanded over the years to meet customers (both civilian and military) demands, and to exploit gaps in the market. Our first release is HUE166 which was the plate of the first Land Rover and is an 80inch wheelbase model. It appears in it’s reconditioned form at the museum in Gaydon. Orders for this will be high, we will despatch all orders for this model separately at the end February
These models are sold out therefore we have an additional release code LAN180001E that will appear in mid/late April - this will be HUE 166, but will have a slightly different finish.
