1954 Land Rover Series 1 86

Description

The first deliveries of Land Rovers were made in July 1948 and within a year sales had overtaken those of Rover cars and two years later the ratio was two to one. Rover management had thought that this innovative new all-terrain vehicle would be the farmer’s friend but they hadn’t predicted that it would become everyone’s friend! (Doubtless this runaway success was remembered when the luxurious Range Rover was conceived!) In the beginning a 1.6-litre engine was used and the wheelbase was just 80 inches but in 1952 a larger 2.0-litre unit was introduced and in 1954 the wheelbase was stretched to 86 inches. Land Rovers were hugely successful in Australia, too, preceding the arrival of early Toyota Land Cruisers (imported by Leslie Thiess for use on the Snowy Mountains Scheme) by some years.