ONELIFE #36 – English

PRE-PRODUCTION CAR NO. 7
“BRITAIN’S MOST VERSATILE
VEHICLE - THE LAND ROVER.
FOR THE FARMER, THE
COUNTRYMAN AND FOR
GENERAL INDUSTRIAL USE”
THE ACTUAL SIGN WORDING FROM LAND ROVER’S
STAND AT THE 1948 AMSTERDAM MOTOR SHOW
From the road, it’s hard for passers-by to appreciate the much
redeveloped and constantly evolving history of Land Rover’s Lode
Lane factory in Solihull. The company’s latest and most advanced
vehicles, including the Range Rover Velar, the Range Rover and the
Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), are made
here, but beyond the perimeter and stringent security survives a
modest building that’s the very nucleus of Land Rover’s storied past.
Originally constructed in 1939 as the second of two ‘shadow
factories’ to prepare for potential war, Lode Lane was first used to
assemble Bristol Hercules aircraft engines, before being taken over by
Rover in 1945 for car production. The development, engineering and
testing of pre-production Land Rovers started here in 1947, and it was
in the engineering department in Block 1 that the very first Land Rover
Series 1 pre-production cars numbered 01 to 48 were built. Later,
Series 1, 2, 2a, 3, 3a and Defender models would also be built here,
albeit in Block 3, until production finally ended in January 2016.
One of the few original buildings still remaining at Lode Lane, the
weathered brickwork of Block 1 has witnessed Land Rover history
from day one. Even its glass roof sections are still covered in fading
WW2-era camouflage. An appropriate setting, then, for a very special
homecoming. For today, Block 1 is welcoming a very distinguished
guest – the once long-lost number L07 pre-production Land Rover
that debuted to the world as ‘Britain’s Most Versatile Vehicle’ at the
Amsterdam Motor Show on 30 April 1948.
It was one of the first Land Rovers ever to have been seen in public,
alongside its sister cars L03 and L05 (L for left-hand drive), yet this
highly significant vehicle was sold off in June 1955 and registered for
UK roads as SNX 910. With no record of its whereabouts since late
1968, it was presumed lost. But, almost magically, it has been found,
fittingly by someone with a long personal association with Lode Lane.
Above: SNX 910 is unveiled
to previous owners Reg
Mason and June Maddison
Top right: The car back in
the very place it was born
Below right: Reg Mason
saved it from scrapping,
but he didn’t realise its
significance at the time
LUCKY NUMBER 7
Reg Mason knows the site, having started working here at the tender
age of 14 on the Rover P5 production line, adjacent to where Land
Rovers were built. A Land Rover fan through and through, the now
retired Reg’s subsequent career with the brand spanned another
25 years in a variety of different roles, but he never really expected
to be back in the original buildings. However, a chance visitor to
his independent workshop in 2016 was to set in motion a chain of
events that would see him return to Block 1 today, standing next
to an early prototype Land Rover.
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