Original Launch Land Rover Returns To The Road For The First Time Since The 1960S

After playing a starring role in Land Rover’s 70th anniversary celebrations last year, the ‘missing’ original launch Land Rover demonstration vehicle from the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show has returned to the road for the first time since the 1960s, following a year-long restoration.

Rebuilt by a team of experts at Land Rover Classic at its Classic Works facility in Coventry, which is dedicated to preserving Land Rovers out of production for 10 years or more, it was renovated using a mixture of traditional skills, original drawings and 21st century technology.

The historically important pre-production vehicle, which had vanished for decades but was found in 2016 in a garden near the Solihull factory where it was built, has been kept as authentic as possible and returned to its correct 1948 specification – including left-hand drive configuration, prototype braking system and all-wheel drive controls.

This approach required the team to strip the vehicle down to its bare chassis and begin a painstaking process of testing and checking which components could be reused and rebuilt following decades of decay and rust.

While the front axle required no significant repairs, the rear axle showed signs of extreme damage and fatigue. To understand the extent of the problem, the original part was X-rayed and depth-tested using state-of-the-art techniques and found to be strong enough to keep, rather than be replaced. During this process the Land Rover Classic technicians even uncovered the original axle number, which was thought to be lost.

The original through-dash selectable 4WD system controls, known by enthusiasts as the ‘Organ Stops’ due to their similarity with the controls found on church organs, were also reinstated. The trio of pull-push knobs on the dash panel operate the two and four-wheel drive transmission and High and Low range gear selection. This system was only fitted to some early pre-production Land Rovers, before being replaced by a simpler set-up for production. Land Rover Classic technicians used their expert knowledge to reinstate the original combination of rods, levers and linkages to replicate the design of the vehicle when it made its first appearance in 1948.