10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... THE SERIES I - III LAND ROVERS
When World War Two ended, Rover found itself with a large shadow factory in Solihull which had been erected to build aero-engines for the war effort. It must have surprised everyone when Rover turned this into a production facility for a commercial vehicle inspired by the Jeep. After all, Rover had started out producing bicycles in 1878, then motorbikes in 1902 before turning to cars in 1904. There were plenty of ups and downs in those early years (probably more downs than ups if truth be told!), with a move upmarket under the leadership of Frank Searle and Spencer Wilks at the start of the 1930s being rather unfortunate on the timing front given the economic woes which then hit the world.
Rover survived though, and with Spencer’s brother Maurice also on board, they continued to build quality cars for a discerning clientele before turning to war work at two shadow factories, one at Acocks Green in Birmingham from 1937 and the other at Solihull from
