The Rearview Mirror: The Birth of an Off-Road Legend

The Willys-Overland Jeep had mechanical problems again, and it wasn’t the first time.

Maurice Wilks used the Jeep on his farm in Newborough, Anglesey, Wales, much as many Jeep owners had done. But its reliability proved problematic. But unlike other Jeep owners, Wilks was in a position to do something about it. He was the head designer for the British car company Rover, where his brother Spencer Wilks was managing director.

Wilks decided to create a more reliable Jeep for Rover, one that would debut at the Amsterdam Motor Show this week in 1948 as the Land Rover Series 1.

It all starts on two wheels

Rover traces its roots back to 1877, when John Starley establishes a bicycle company in Coventry. But it was development of the Rover Safety Bicycle in 1884 that proved revolutionary. Starley’s idea had come from his previous venture, Coventry Machinists, which had won a contract to manufacture 500 velocipedes. 

Like many bicycle manufacturers, Starley was working on making cycling safer. High-wheelers, popularly known as an Ordinary, were best-suited for tall athletic men and were designed to travel greater distances with each pedal stroke. But they were also dangerous, since the rider’s center of gravity was only slightly behind the large front wheel, meaning it was fairly easy to be sent flying over the handlebars head first.

Starley’s answer was the 1884 Rover Safety Bicycle, a rear-wheel drive, chain-driven bicycle, rather than the direct drive Ordinarys then being offered. However, it would be another year, and the introduction of the 1885 Rover Safety Bicycle that would prove revolutionary, with equal-sized wheels, chain driven rear-wheel drive and the rider placed father back from the front wheel. 

By 1889, it had become what anyone would consider a modern bicycle, as solid rubber tires gave way to John Dunlop’s pneumatic tires mounted to a diamond-shaped frame. The company proved successful enough to go public in 1896, by which point the manufacturer was known as Rover Cycle Co. Ltd. The company began investigating motorcycles the following year, offering their first one in 1902, the year after Starley’s death.

By 1904, the company introduced its first car powered by a 1.3-liter single-cylinder gas engine. The organization would go on to become Rover, the automotive company for which Wilks and his brother worked.

Birth of an off-road legend

Having used his cantankerous Jeep for farm work, Starley intended his new vehicle to be the perfect farm implement, as handy as a tractor but far more versatile. Spencer and Maurice met on Maurice’s farm on the Anglesey shore to hash out the sort of vehicle they would build. What they wanted was wanted was “an all-purpose vehicle on the lines of the Wills-Overland Jeep,” according to company documents. As they talked, Maurice drew the outline of the car in the sand. 

Literally, a line in the sand had been drawn; Rover would produce their first SUV.

It wasn’t long before Maurice and Spencer got to work building a prototype using a Willys-Overland Jeep chassis and axles. Initially, a center-mounted steering wheel was considered so it could be exported to markets with left- or right-hand side drive, but this idea was soon abandoned in favor of a more conventional arrangement.

For power, they accessed the company pantry, using a prewar-designed 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine produced 50 horsepower, mated to a 4-speed manual transmission and permanent four-wheel drive with a 2-speed transfer case. Uniquely, the Land Rover Series 1 was fitted with a Power Take-Off unit, so it could be used to power farming equipment. The Jeep chassis was supplanted by the company’s own box-section ladder-frame chassis with an 80-inch wheelbase.

Its boxy body was built mostly from aluminum, which was far more plentiful than steel, as it was being used for manufacturing military aircraft. Given the excess supply of aircraft cockpit paint, it’s no surprise that early Land Rovers were offered in varying shades of light green with a canvas roof and a Spartan demeanor; Passenger seat cushions, doors, a heater and spare tires were optional. 

The new vehicle went from concept to production in a mere 10 months.

Land Rover outlasts its parent

Unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show and priced at £450, it grew to become a success for Rover, with production reaching 16,000 units annually by 1950. By this point, Rover also offered the Land Rover Station Wagon with a body by Tickford, who typically built coachwork for Rolls-Royce and Lagonda.

With seating for seven, this opulent wagon featured leather seats, a heater, a one-piece windshield, and employed aluminum sheet metal over a wooden frame, unlike other Land Rovers. The Land Rover’s popularity continued unabated. Winston Churchill received one as an 80th birthday present in 1954. The Series I Land Rover featured an extra-wide passenger seat and a heated footwell.

Slowly the Series 1 evolved, adding a choice of selectable two-wheel or four-wheel drive, and going on through different iterations, including the Series II in 1958, the Series IIA in 1961 and the Series III in 1971, by which point it was known as the Defender.

The name change coincides with the launch of the Range Rover in 1970, marketed as “a car for all reasons.” While the new model preserved the original Land Rover’s off-road proficiency, it was loaded with creature comforts, and lead to a line-up of luxury off-road vehicles that outlived its corporate parent, Rover. 

A series of owners

In 1994, the Rover Group would be acquired by BMW, with Land Rover being acquired by Ford in 2000 and paired with Jaguar, which it had bought the year before. Rover would disappear, with the exception of Mini, while Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to India’s Tata Motors in 2008, which still owns the pair — now one company — today.

In April, the Indian-owned British auto company known as Jaguar Land Rover renamed itself JLR, with the Land Rover badge being dropped. Instead, will offer four brands, three of them Land Rover-derived. They include Defender, Discovery Range Rover and Jaguar. The move is meant to “amplify the uniqueness of our characterful British marques,” said Gerry McGovern, the company’s chief creative officer.

It’s unclear, though, whether the Land Rover moniker will fully 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 told trade publication Automotive News Europe. But JLR hasn’t fully explained how it will reconcile that with its decision to separate the brands of Jaguar, Defender, Discovery and Range Rover.

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• Source: https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2023/04/the-rearview-mirror-the-birth-of-an-off-road-legend/