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I would have said 1969/70, because the well-off father of a schoolmate had one about then, more or less when they came out. It was a three door. And much admired it was too.
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I was standing by a very old one and talking to the owner 2 days ago. I made some comment about the body work 'was mainly aluminium' and the owner disagreed. Was I mistaken? I thought that early versions suffered from steel chassis/ Aluminium body electrolytic corrosion problems, probably around the mounting points.
Or is my memory playing tricks.
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1970 - Contrast the Triumph Stag - announced at the same time as the Range Rover - both hailed as world beaters at their launch...........
The Stag ran for about 8 years but never made a name for itself. The main Stag problems were with the V8 engine (2 x 4 cylinders stuck together) which had overheating probems. Now if they had just shared the Rover/Buick V8 things might have been different.
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I remember driving in in the mid 70s. It was a very spartan basic utilitarian piece of kit, but immensly practical and capable.
A far cry from the Wag shopping trolley it is today.
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I remember some on a J plate and an odd couple on a H plate so it is that long. Cracking cars if you could get properly sorted one......The daddy of all 4x4 that could be cars as well - they weren't luxury cars back then !
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>> in the mid 70s. It was a very spartan basic utilitarian piece of kit.
AFAIR the floor was covered with something akin to a giant rubber mat so the whole thing could be hosed out.
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...I made some comment about the body work 'was mainly aluminium' and the owner disagreed...
I think most of the panels were aluminium, but the tailgate was steel.
The roof was certainly non-magnetic, because the three 9s services couldn't get their magnet-based beacons to stick.
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I used to tune these critters @ the roadside from the 70's to the 90's,
Blimmin load of carp (if you ask me)
I used to roadtest em - never did anything for me though,
Layder ones were bedder (if you've got the wonga)
I'm learning Latin btw :)
Last edited by: Dog on Thu 3 Jun 10 at 10:19
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Bodywork was a steel frame for strength with aluminium panels (except tailgate and bonnet) hung upon it.
Plenty of scope for bimetallic corrosion.
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You can always pinpoint the critical moment in the downward decline of a proper working 4WD vehicle when they stop offering the option of a Power Take-off on the back.
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When the RR first appeared a late friend of mine, himself a fairly scary Land Rover and 2CV driver, named it dismissively 'the fuzz car of the seventies'. And so it proved, actually, up to a point.
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Seen 4 new shaped parked on the hard shoulder with hazards blinking this week alone, at least the oldie was an easy fix for most things.
I had an elderly 3 door CSK which i used for everything including severe off roading, remarkably smooth ride and could be hustled along once you learned that the considerable roll didn't mean roll over and speed humps/pot holes it laughed at.
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We had 70s ones on the recovery fleet of a firm I worked for. Pulled fine, anything you could get on the trailer was managed, even a Phantom.
Our trailers were air braked. There were occasions when, under heavy braking with a load on, the trailer would press the back end of the RR down leaving the front wheels, still driving, off the ground. Usually happened when coming down a slip road to a roundabout.
Wouldn't be advisable, or probably legal, today. You could tow, with our set-ups at 70 mph then. I was stopped a few times but we all carried documentary proof as most of the BIBs didn't seem to know.
IIRC, the first few on the road were H reg....69/70.
Ted
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>> Seen 4 new shaped parked on the hard shoulder with hazards blinking this week alone,
>> at least the oldie was an easy fix for most things.
>>
There's a guy on Pistonheads who's just rejected a brand-new one, that he paid £70K for, due to breakdown first weekend and delayed, then bodged, fix.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Thu 3 Jun 10 at 22:24
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I dreamed of buying a bob tail version with the 6.2 normally aspirated GM V8 diesel conversion they did at the time. No doubt it would have ended in tears if I had bought one (destroyed gearbox or something). And I've never needed a vehicle like that. But how many people actually do today?
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Range Rover....How Long? - Manatee
