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And it all began on the farm of Maurice Wilks Post war chairman of Rover.
His Land Rover ex-U8. Army deep was wearing out and he decided it should be possible to build a better four-wheel drive machine using basic engineering ideas.
He asked his brother Spencer, then Rovers brilliant chief engineer “Can you, will you, do it?”
Steel was available only for exports, so Spencer used iron girders he found on a workshop shelf for the chassis and aluminium for the side panels.
The brothers chose the name Land Rover “simply to depict its role as an off roader”.
The machine followed the design philosophy of the American Jeep
Just Every Essential Auto Parts.
Land Rovers were to be built with minimum components. maximum simplicity, but to have maximum strength and last longest.
No one dreamed it would develop into such a major business.
The prototype for Maurice’s farm had its steering wheel in the centre - that seemed Practical for climbing rough ground.
It had no doors, so Maurice could jump out quickly either side.
But the first production Land Rover model, launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show to win export orders so that the brothers could apply for an allocation of steel, was offered with left or right hand steering |
