Celebrating 75 years of the iconic Land Rover Defender created in Solihull in 1948

Not many vehicles can truly claim to be iconic but the original Land Rover is definitely one of them and this year marks its 75th birthday.

To many it is known as the Defender but that is actually a more modern incarnation of a vehicle that started its life in the wake of World War Two. The original Land Rover ended up giving its name to an entire company that now makes up the larger part of Britain’s biggest car maker Jaguar Land Rover, which has factories in Birmingham, Solihull, Wolverhampton and Merseyside, as well as overseas plants in Slovakia, India, China and Brazil.

In many ways the original Land Rover - subsequently named the Series I - owed its very existence to the war, as it was inspired by the US designed and made Willys Jeep, which was used successfully by the US Army and the Allies in the conquest of Europe.

The Land Rover was envisaged as a vehicle to help the Rover Car Company in Solihull get back on its feet as regards vehicle production, having made engines for Bristol Hercules bombers as a Shadow factory during the war.

Car production had been halted during the war and many car makers simply carried on with pre-war vehicles they had been making or adapted or revised old models.

But the Rover Car Company, which started out as a bicycle maker in Coventry before branching out to motorcycles and cars and eventually moving to Solihull, went back to the drawing board and the Land Rover was the brainchild of the company’s chief engineer Maurice Wilks. He famously sketched his original design for a “go anywhere do anything” vehicle in the sand on an Anglesey beach for his brother Spencer, who was managing director of the Rover Company.

A rugged prototype was first developed in 1947 but the finished product was unveiled to the world at the Amsterdam Motor Show on April 30 in 1948. It’s hard to imagine what a radical step something like the Land Rover was at the time but there was a method in the madness and a capable off-road vehicle made sense in a country that had been ravaged by six years of war. It would have immensely practical benefit as a commercial and farm vehicle.

The Land Rover was developed using components from Rover saloon cars, along with innovations like corrosion-free aluminium and a new box section chassis, which allowed for exceptional load carrying capacity and off-road stiffness.

As well as giving the Land Rover company its name the Series I was also the inspiration for every sports utility vehicle (SUV) that has ever been produced since then.

Of course the Defender name lives on in the shape of the current Land Rover Defender, but other than a design nod to its predecessor and possessing go-anywhere capabilities, that vehicle is a world away from the original which was produced continuously from 1948 until January 2016 at the Lode Lane factory in Solihull.

More than two million Land Rovers and Defenders were sold during that time. There were 308 model derivatives and it also served as a basic blueprint for all subsequent Land Rover vehicles like the Range Rover and Land Rover Discovery.

The Land Rover only became the Series I when its replacement the Series II was brought out in the late 1950s. Its success continued and its evolution, though its manufacturing process changed little in almost 70 years. It was still produced on an old school production line at the Solihull factory, with skilled workers assembling each vehicle by hand before it might end up in any corner of the world.

And end up in any corner of the world they did, with the Land Rover/Defender being the first vehicle many people in the developing world saw. It was also a favourite with the military - not just in Britain but across the world - and the British Army ordered its first Land Rovers in 1949.

The steady evolution of the Land Rover saw the freewheel 4x4 system replaced by selectable two or four-wheel drive in 1950. A long-wheelbase version was introduced in 1953 with the first diesel engine fitted in 1957.

By 1959 a total of 250,000 Land Rovers had been produced and, by 1966, that figure had risen to 500,000 vehicles. The Series III was launched in 1971 and in the same year the marque celebrated 750,000 sales. In 1976 a magical milestone was reached with a million Land Rovers having rolled off the Solihull production line.

Twenty-four years later, 1990 was a big year when the Land Rover was relaunched and renamed as the Defender 90, 110 and 130. It’s debatable how much celebrity owners have influenced and shaped the Land Rover’s iconic status, but arguably its biggest fan was the late Queen Elizabeth II. Her majesty was often photographed at the wheel of one and special ‘Royal’ Land Rovers were created for processions, events and parades.

In a poignant nod to the Royal Family’s connection to the Land Rover brand, a specially adapted Defender was used to transport Prince Philip’s coffin at his funeral and the Duke of Edinburgh even had a hand in its design himself.

Other famous fans included Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen, Juan Peron and the Shah of Persia,  When production of the Defender finally came to an end there was a special celebration in Solihull to mark what was undoubtedly the end of an era.

It included a parade of vehicles, ranging from ‘Huey’ the first Land Rover ever made (so named due to its distinctive registration HUE 166) to the specially adapted Defender created for the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film.

Speaking at the event the motoring writer and former Top Gear presenter Quentin Wilson said: “You can’t call it a car, a truck, a van - or anything else. It has all the brilliance of the Spitfire, Concorde, Arkwright’s Spinning Jenny or the hovercraft - it’s a singular and very special British invention. It’s the vehicle 60 per cent of people in the developing world see for the first time and 70 per cent of them are still running.”

Indeed old Land Rovers and Defenders are still a familiar enough sight on the road. It’s testament to their brilliance that so many of them are still around - though it’s fair to say these were vehicles that were built to last. Of course the model was eventually replaced by the new Defender, though there was a bit of a wait for it to emerge. It was finally unveiled in September 2019.

As mentioned already it is an all-new creation rather than a continuation of its predecessor, though in fairness Land Rover design chief Gerry McGovern did embody a sense of the old model in its profile. While it may not satisfy the purists there’s something about it that shouts Land Rover/Defender.

Another key difference is that it boasts way more technology than the Land Rovers and Defenders of old. Even when the Defender went out of production in 2016 it still boasted a rugged simplicity as far as onboard technology was concerned.

The new Defender has also been a real hit, with buyers queuing-up to get behind the wheel. In fact it’s been something of a victim of its own success, with owners having to join a lengthy waiting list to get one. Production delays have also been exacerbated by the pandemic and a global shortage of the computer chips that are so important in any modern car.

Whatever the case, the Defender looks like being around for quite some time yet. Here’s to the next 75 years.