| Author | Message | ||
     Steve Andrews (Sillybus) Senior Member Username: Sillybus Post Number: 313 Registered: 08-2002 |
Someone just told me that there is a dive charter operator out of Indian River Inlet, DE who owns a 1944 ex-MOD Land Rover. I was also told that this vehicle is parked at the inlet pretty much every weekend. I haven't had a chance to go see it but from what I hear, it has been restored from the ground up and repainted to include the MOD procurement number of "44-????" something or other. I know there was another company, The Rover Company, building aircraft engines during the war and touring cars before and after WWII. Did they produce a military vehicle during the war and if so, does anybody have a picture of one? I told the chap that I thought he was mistaken either by year or manufacturer when he told me there was a 44 Land Rover at the inlet. He said he spoke with the owner on one of his dives and was assured that it was a 1944 Land Rover. Any insight is appreciated. I am going to try to head over there in the next few weeks and snap some photos. | ||
| Glenn Guinto (Glenn) Senior Member Username: Glenn Post Number: 724 Registered: 02-2002 |
I've always learned the the 1948 Series 1 80" was the first production rover to have the Land Rover name. A picture of this is in another thread in the General Section that says "Back from UK". Although the first prototype was the center steering one that was built on a Willy's/Jeep chassis. I don't know what year that was but I don't think it dated back to 44. Glenn | ||
| Steve Andrews (Sillybus) Senior Member Username: Sillybus Post Number: 314 Registered: 08-2002 |
Glenn - With the little information I received, I am assuming it is a 1944 Rover if the year is correct. My friend and most people could easily make the mistake in thinking that Rover and Land Rover are one in the same. I still want to see it. | ||
| Glenn Guinto (Glenn) Senior Member Username: Glenn Post Number: 725 Registered: 02-2002 |
Steve, I'd be quite interested to see it as well if you can snap some pics.  Thanks! Glenn  | ||
| Steve Andrews (Sillybus) Senior Member Username: Sillybus Post Number: 315 Registered: 08-2002 |
I'll make sure and share any pics I get. | ||
| Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Leslie Post Number: 2459 Registered: 02-2002 |
Steve, Okay, you could surf the web and find this, but, here's the low-down. There was a comany that was actually making sewing machines, that switched over and started making bicycles near the turn of last century, and called it the Rover Safety Bicycle, because it was one of the first bicycles that had the front and rear wheels the same size, instead of a really big front wheel and a itty-bitty back wheel. Times progress, and the Rover Company gets into cars. WWII halts English domestic automobile lines as all manufacturers shift gears for wartime production (just like you can find Singer 1911 pistols). Post-war: Rover is hurting. Their cars weren't exported before the war, so they don't get enough of a steel allotment to start up their car-making again. They need a stop-gap product, something to make to get them back on their feet. Maurice Wilks is an engineer at the Rover company. He's got a exmilitary MB Jeep for use on his nearby farm, and it's lived a hard life, and is feeling its age. He keeps bringing it into the Rover shop to repair it. He begins to wonder what he'd replace it with, as there was nothing domestic in England that was similar. One day in '47 he and Spen King essentially decide that "they're not car engineers if they couldn't make something better!" Necessity is the mother of invention. Maurice gets his older brother Spencer, who is a big-whig finance guy at Rover, to help sell the idea to management. They start with Maurice's Jeep, stripping it down to the chassis, use an existing rear Rover axle, transmission, and engine, make up a front axle and a transfer case. Sheet aluminum is plentiful and cheap since warplanes aren't needed now, so, they use it for the body panels, and keep the styling simple so they can easily make it themselves without special tooling. Also, they originally design a center-seat, thinking that it would be good for both LHD and RHD, but, it was hard to work the steering around the engine so they tossed the idea after the first one. They build a simple box-frame so it's easy to make yet strong, stronger than the Jeep's. They pictured it to be a vehicle for the rural family or the farmer, that would replace the car and the tractor, or could be exported throughout the Empire to India or Africa. They intentionally kept it simple, to make it easy to work on. And they called it the Land-Rover. (Sometimes, in print you see it as Landrover in the older literature, FWIW.) It made it's official debut at the Amsterdam car-show in May of 1948, and was an instant hit. And the rest is history. Rover went back to making cars once they fiscally could, thanks to the Land-Rover. But, they were never as succsesful, with the Land Rover supporting the rest of the company from then on. Eventually, Rover got bought up by the nationalization bastardization called British-Leyland (ouch!). Later, Rover was sold off to British Aerospace, who then later sold it to BMW, who broke it up and sold just "Land Rover" to Ford, kept the Rover Mini for themselves, and sold the rest of Rover to a group of business investors. No Land Rover existed before 1948, except for the first few prototypes being hammered out in late '47. Land Rovers were never in WWII, contrary to some WWII movies out there (lol...). FWIW, the original Land Rover was dissassembled. The Rover bits were laid over in a corner and eventually scrapped; and the chassis was returned to the Jeep which was reassembled, which stayed with the Wilk's estate into the '60's (that would be a nice Jeep to find!). FWIW..... -L | ||
| Steve Andrews (Sillybus) Senior Member Username: Sillybus Post Number: 316 Registered: 08-2002 |
Thank you Leslie! I was a bit familiar with that history but didn't know of the connection between The Rover Company and Land-Rover. If The Rover Company made no MOD vehicles during that time-frame, I must assume that the production year is inaccurate. My friend will be diving out of the inlet again in a few weeks. I've already put in a request for photos. I remember an uncle having an old Rover sports car when I was a kid. I've inquired about it often and nobody who is still alive remembers what happened to it. I'd love to see it again one day. | ||
| Glenn Guinto (Glenn) Senior Member Username: Glenn Post Number: 728 Registered: 02-2002 |
LOL... Les, can you please elaborate? Glenn great narrative!!! | ||
| gp (Garrett) Senior Member Username: Garrett Post Number: 2265 Registered: 10-2001 |
here is a '48 as seen on my desk  |
