The Red Bulletin April 2020

VENTURE
Equipment
DRIVE
Tough
love
Twisted Land Rover IIA
On January 29, 2016, the last
original lineage Land Rover
Defender – the second oldest
4x4 after the US Army’s
WWII Jeep – rolled off the
production line, ending an
unbroken manufacturing run
of 68 years. Fans – of which
there were many – wept. One
of them was Charles Fawcett.
The Yorkshireman grew
up with Land Rovers. In the
1970s, his father sold and
repaired them, and Charles
owned his first at the age of 11.
In 2001, he launched Twisted
Automotive to tune up old
Rovers, and business blew up.
But when Fawcett learnt no
new vehicles were to be
produced, he had to act, buying
240 of the last Land Rover
Defenders ever made.
“I could have sold them
the moment they arrived,” he
says. Instead, he stored them
for the right moment: now.
Twisted doesn’t just modify
Land Rovers, it re-engineers
them, transforming factorymileage
Defenders into luxury
beasts honouring the original
1948 to 1983 models.
This reimagined 1961 Series
IIA is built from a Defender 110
– one of only 10 from that final
2016 batch. Each takes around
800 hours to complete, and –
with prices starting at £98,500
plus VAT – three have already
been sold.
“Some learnt to drive in
them, may have even served
in them,” says Fawcett. “It’s
the send-off that the original
manufacturer should have
given them in the first place.”
twistedautomotive.com
The limestonecoloured
roof
matches the
wheels. The
interior is heavily
upstyled, with
black grain
leather upholstery
and gunmetal
grey seatbelts
The restyled
bodywork pays
homage to early
’60s models,
as do the 18in
Rostyle wheels.
There’s a 2200cc
diesel engine
beneath the
bonnet
TOM GUISE
THE RED BULLETIN 79