9.22 am GMT, 29 January 2016. Land Rover no 2,016,933 leaves the line.
Would you have suggested that in April 1948? Thank you Land Rover!
Curbside Classic – 1951 Land Rover Series I
Factory Outtake: The Last Land Rover Defender Leaves The Line.
– Posted on January 29, 2016
Pour out a martini for the Defender?
shaken or stirred?
I’m pretty certain the Defender would have a pint of dark, warm beer. The prospect of condensation on the outside of the glass would be troubling at least.
With either a ploughman’s lunch or a steak and kidney pudding 😉
Oh yes, that famous British Cuisine!
And in a good characterful old pub reached only on foot, unless you have a Land Rover to navigate a muddy track full of protruding rocks and floods. It’s the only 4×4 you’ll ever need.
The food in such places can be surprisingly good nowadays.
I hear they’re doing a successor. Somehow I just know its not going to be the stripped down magnificent off-roading tool that the original Land Rover was. They’ll find a way to make it softer, heavier, more luxurious and less purposeful. Even if it still is a damned good off-road vehicle.
I’m sure the color choice and number plate are no coincidence. Here’s production Land Rover #1
No coincidence at all. Land Rover marketing are at the top of their game right now, and no mess ups like sending a 2003 Jaguar for a Top Gear road test with a number plate starting “BL03…..”!
And of course getting number plates on the line is most unusual.
One owner does not need to have number plates though – Her Majesty
“of course getting number plates on the line is most unusual”
I had noticed that, it smacked of the car having already been finished etc then wheeled back in for a photo opportunity!
So awesome, Roger – thanks for posting this. Cheers to the Defender!
Not bad for a stop gap.
Now we can say they don’t make ’em like that any more.
LOL!
From a small article that appeared in the British magazine CAR:
67, number of years the Defender has been built at Solihull.
3, number of days to build a Defender.
7, the number of robots used in building a Defender…..versus 328 used to build a Range Rover.
2…..number of parts shared with the original 1948 Defender.
The Defender will continue to be built in Turkey, but for NON-EU markets.
I’d love to know which two parts have remained unchanged for 68 years!
I remember reading that the channel that held the rubber molding of the VW Beetle’s front lid was the only part that remained unchanged from the first KdF-Wagen to the last Ultima Edicion (Super Beetles apart, I suppose).
A bolt and a nut? 🙂
Nah, those would have been Whitworth thread on the old one and metric on the new. 😉
Actually BSF threads Whitworth bolt head sizes.
Apparently they’re a stiffener under the rear seat and a cleat on the canvas hood.
Thank you!
Landrover at Solihull since 48 Defender is a relatively new brand name for it.
Interesting about the Turkey continuation
Military versions of the Defender are built under license by the Turkish firm Otokar: http://www.otokar.com/en-us/products/Pages/Land-Rover-Defender.aspx
With this disclaimer: Export of all armoured vehicles subject to requirements of related governments’ export licence regulations
And according to the Land Rover wikipedia page, other license-built Defenders are (were?) built in Spain, Iran and Brazil.
The brazilian production finished a long time ago, I guess it was in 2005 or 2006
Spanish production was quite substantial, and eventually the plant was bought by Nissan.
Spain produced a LWB but 2 door configuration as well.
You could try to import one in to the EU and USA using a 2nd hand chassis
of 1990 vintage?.
Understand pending tougher safety standards killed it off just like the VW
Transporter in Brazil?.
One often repeated and (as far as i know) never denied possibility is that production may restart in either Turkey or India. However, given that Solihull has stopped production, and nothing has been announced, I suspect the supply chain would need a lot of rebuilding to achieve this now.
More likely, I suspect, is that the new Defender will be produced in Turkey, India, or Land Rover’s newly announced facility in Slovakia, due on stream in 2018.
http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/en/about-us/news/2015/12/11/jaguar-land-rover-confirms-new-factory-in-slovakia/
The 2 parts that remain from the original are:
“….a box stiffener under the rear chairs and a canvas hood cleat”
I assume they mean a boxed section under the rear seats, and by hood cleat I’m assuming some kind of hold down for hood.
A cleat is a rope tie-down point, I dare say there was no reason to change those!
Somehow it is always sad to see the last one of a line that had an enthusiasts’ following.
Thanks , Roger.
I don’t know much about Land Rover, but those pictures of the last car rolling off the assembly line with the workers gathered around it always make me sad….
Same here.
I just saw a turbodiesel version of one of these at my local park last weekend. Gray market import I think (Seattle WA area).
Ford diesel inside (in the more recent models, that is), 2.2 liter 4-cylinder since 2011. From 2007 to 2011 Ford’s 2.4 liter 4-cylinder.
My brother has one built in the ’90’s with a factory Mercedes turbodiesel. He loves it.
Factory Mercedes diesel is anew option to me!
That’s a Land Rover Defender with a Mercedes diesel engine swap, I assume ? I can’t think of any factory Land Rover product with a Mercedes diesel.
Putting massive (as in displacement) turbo diesels in pickup-trucks is over the top, but on the other hand, a 2.2 liter is just a bit too small for a vehicle like the Defender.
An example, Land Rover with a Mercedes OM617 engine swap.
*SNIF* .
-Nate
End of an era, thank you Roger
We have a 1952 Land Rover on the farm.
Useful and always reliable!
You can’t improve the original concept a lot, just better parts.
Reeling at the thought of whatever amorphous blob modern successor they’ll come up with to inevitably replace it.