ONELIFE #34 – English

LASTING LEGACY
“COLLECTORS LIKE
CARS WHICH
WERE BENCHMARKS
AND TURNING
POINTS, AND THE
ORIGINAL RANGE
ROVER WAS BOTH”
An easier option is to buy an original, two-door 1970s
Range Rover fresh from the factory. You won’t need
a time machine, nor is there a stock of unsold ones
around the back: as part of Land Rover Classic’s work to
revive these historic vehicles, Land Rover engineers can
now restore one, true to its original state, right where it
all started in 1970 in Solihull in the UK.
Land Rover’s Classic division has already built
over 60 ‘Reborn’ Series Is, each restored to as-new
condition by the company that first made it, in the
same city and using the original drawings (see Onelife
magazine #33, pages 62-67, “Extreme Make Over“).
Now, it is extending the Reborn programme to the
early, two-door Range Rover models.
The first vehicle to be restored, a UK-supplied
1978 model in Bahama Gold, has just been
completed and was revealed at the Retromobile
classic car show in Paris. Its rebuilding included
putting a range of parts and panels back into
production to factory standards. Some have been
unavailable for years, but the realization of these
vehicles’ importance means the parts are now being
brought back to life for restoration purposes.
Mike Bishop is the engineering manager for the
project. He drove his first Land Rover on his family’s
2,500-acre farm in Australia aged 14, and has been
obsessed with them ever since. He’s a lifelong
enthusiast, collector and now a restorer of Solihull’s
finest. He understands his customers well because if
he wasn’t running this project, he’d be one of them.
“Our customers have a real emotional attachment
to this place, and there’s real value for them in having
a car that has been returned to factory condition,
by the factory,“ he says. “We’re just continuing the
work started by Spen King and the other legendary
engineers who made those first vehicles. There’s a level
of authenticity that comes from having a Range Rover
restored here using the original engineering drawings
and technical blueprints. We even have guys working
on the project who built the later Classics back when
they were new.“
Mike won’t talk numbers. But he reveals that
demand for the Reborn Series Is exceeded all
expectations. He knows he’s likely to be deluged, and
will now have to scour the globe for Range Rovers
suitable for rebirth as the programme continues.
The early vehicles he’ll be restoring were an instant
success and an automotive design classic. But not
everything about them was right. Their ’luxury’ came
from their car-like performance, road-holding and
mechanical refinement, none of which compromised
their agility off-road. But their cabins were spartan:
the earliest Range Rovers had plastic seats because
its maker believed that gentlemen farmers would use
them to transport livestock, and need to hose them
out afterwards. Perhaps some did, but more were to
be found in cities, or in the fast lane of motorways, or
parked outside Britain’s great country homes.
Those early plastic interiors are ironically now the
most sought-after by collectors and the most difficult
for Mike to restore.
In the end, this is what it’s all about: the story of the
Range Rover from the first Velar to the latest revolves
around the addition of luxury to match its refinement,
without diluting its design DNA or diminishing its
huge capability. Those early plastic interiors have
evolved into cabins which are a benchmark for all
luxury cars today; not just luxury SUVs. Range Rovers
now boast power outputs many times that of the
original 3.5-litre V8, and all-terrain ability which
has been stretched by intelligent technology truly
unimaginable in 1970.
“The original Range Rover must have looked like a
spaceship when it first arrived,“ says Mike. “Imagine
it parked next to a Beetle, or whatever else you could
buy in 1970. The New Range Rover Velar will have the
same impact. It is an incredible design, so I think it’s
fitting that we’ve made that link with the Range Rover
Reborn programme.“
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