1977 Range Rover 2 Door 'Suffix D' Wagon

Description

Widely regarded as the car that started the modern SUV revolution, the original Range Rover is an absolute icon of automotive design.  Brilliantly conceived to perform equally well on road as off road, the original Range Rover proved so popular that it very quickly spawned ever-better equipped and ultimately more luxurious iterations.  The Range Rover was launched in 1970 by British Leyland and only available only in a two-door body in Australia until 1984.  While certainly up-market compared to preceding Land Rover models, the early Range Rovers had basic, utilitarian interiors with vinyl seats and plastic dashboards that were designed to be washed out with a hose.  Convenience features such as power steering, carpeted floors, air conditioning, cloth/leather seats, and wooden interior trim only came in later models.  The Range Rover was a body-on-frame design with a box section ladder type chassis, like the contemporary Series Land Rovers, but it differed by having coil spring suspension, permanent four-wheel drive, and four-wheel disc brakes.  Originally powered by a detuned 3.5-litre version of the Buick-derived Rover V8 engine developing 130 horsepower, capacity was later increased to 3.9-litres then 4.2-litres.  Diesel engines joined the range, as did various other model iterations including more luxurious versions built on a longer wheelbase.  But it is the original two-door Range Rover that has now become a much sought after classic, with prices soaring across the globe over the past five years.