1983 Land Rover 88"
“ A later restoration, after the car gave years of service to the 3M Corporation at their Bracknell factory. ”
This has done just 10,000 miles in the past 20 years.

Background
Immediately after the World War II, Spencer Wilks, Rover’s Managing Director, was looking to resurrect the firm’s civilian car production. Decisive action was needed to keep the famous Viking longship from terminally taking on water. The company’s finances had been seriously depleted during the war, and the Government was only prepared to offer Rover enough steel to produce around 1,100 of their conservative saloon cars per year. This was considered woefully too little and too late by Wilks.

Fortuitously, Spencer’s brother Maurice Wilks had been using an American military Willys Jeep as a workhorse on his Anglesey farm. Maurice felt sure he could design a similar, but better, vehicle specifically for the, then, huge agricultural and mining sectors. Maurice famously drew his proposed design in the wet sand of Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey for his brother Spencer Wilks. Maurice’s masterstroke, however, was to propose building the car from an aluminium sheet called Birmabright which was extensively used in aircraft manufacture and hence readily available in Britain’s post-war industrial economy. No more government steel quotas to worry about.

In 1949 the Series I Land Rover was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show. The rest, of course, is history and the Series Land Rovers went on to be built in huge numbers across three main iterations between 1949 and 1985. The Series III, as featured here, was the last iteration of the Series Land Rovers before the arrival of the coil sprung “Ninety” and “One Ten” vehicles. Over 440,000 Series III Land Rovers were ultimately built and sold between 1971 and 1985. The millionth Land Rover appeared in Series III guise in 1976 and can be found today as part of the British Motor Museum collection.

Overview
Our example hails from 1983, from the last couple of years of Series III production. The chassis number of SALLBAAG1AA191671 confirms it to be a home market, right hand drive utility model equipped with the 2.25-litre diesel iteration of the Land Rover four-cylinder engine. In 1980 both diesel and petrol engines were gifted another couple of crankshaft bearings promoting them from 3 to 5 bearing units. These later engines are very much considered as firmly in the mechanical sweet spot courtesy of that more robust and smoother running bottom end.

Anecdotally, we are informed that this Series III spent its early years pottering about the Bracknell based plant of the mighty 3M industrial conglomerate. It seems it was used as a general utility vehicle and shunter in and around the factory.

Current owner, Colin, bought the Land Rover in August of 2020 to become its ninth keeper to date. It is reported that the Series III underwent a restoration or recommissioning at around that time. Based on MoT records it is clear, however, that the Land Rover has been only very lightly used in recent history. In fact, only around 10,000 miles have been covered in the last 20 years. 

Estimate: £8,000 - £12,000

View Current Bid Price HERE