Cars in the wild: a Land Rover
In 1947, Maurice Wilks, chief designer at the Rover Company, who had been using a Willys Jeep on his farm, built a prototype of an all-terrain car on top of a Jeep chassis and axles. He used the raw materials that were available after the war, like aluminium and army-green paint. His design would turn into the Land Rover Series 1 in 1948, and it was an immediate smash hit.
The one I saw in my home town is a 1975 Land Rover Series 3 Pickup. Land Rovers all look similar to me, but the Series 3 has the headlights in the front wings in stead of behind the grille like most earlier models:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 120mm, ISO200, f4, 1/40s
Its construction is standard for such cars: a box-section ladder chassis, 4-wheel drive and leaf-sprung suspension. A great many variants were built: different wheel bases, cabs, roofs, seating arrangements and engines (including a V8 and diesels) were available.
Land Rovers from this era are recognised all over the world; it was the all-terrain 4x4, next to Jeep. They saw service in many armies and were used by civil engineers and on farms on all continents.
They did very well commercially, but compared to the Japanese competition that came in the 1970s in the form of the Toyota Land Cruiser, the Land Rover was underpowered, unreliable and slow, though still the best in rough terrain. I can tell from my own experience they are also incredibly noisy at speed, even for low values of speed.
The successor of the Land Rover Series 3, the similar Land Rover Defender, was introduced in 1983 and produced until 2016. Including the Defender, over 2 million of these early types of Land Rover were built over a period of 67 years.
They are not without flaws, but certainly among the most iconic cars ever built.
Previous car in the wild: a DAF.
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@ocrdu Our neighbor had this is Manila. It used to be the 1st "jeep" back there.
Reminds me of childhood memories riding or playing with them on it :D. Back then only the rich could afford it then the production of cars flooded like crazy
8-) Same here; a local farmer had one, it was the second car I ever drove (aged 14). Not on the public road, of course.
@ocrdu in my country its allowed cause we do have to trail the public road first to get to ragged terrains :D
Legend
I like old, antique, retro style...Enjoyed :)
I really like this retro photo! Follow you )
Thank you!
Old cars/jeeps rock.
That's an interesting pickup truck. I imagine their value is quite high these days.
In The Netherlands, you can buy a decent Series 3 for €5000 to €10000. Not all that bad; very many were made and most are still around.