BACK in 1985 I was still at school but already planning the specification of the Land Rover that I would own once I had passed my driving test. It has to be said that my ambitions were modest: I wanted a Series III short wheelbase in Marine Blue, ideally with a BMC 2.5 diesel engine (a local gamekeeper had one and assured me it was much better than the Land Rover diesel), with a truck cab and three-quarter canvas. In other words, the sort of Land Rover that seemed more common than the Ford Cortina in mid-’80s rural Lincolnshire.
But that was only the starting point. As we all know, old Land Rovers can be endlessly customised and accessorised, and there were plenty of tempting goodies on offer to make my (imaginary) Land Rover really stand out from the crowd. The Internet has been part of our lives for so long now that it is easy to forget just how much effort was required to find out who was selling what: you bought a copy of a Land Rover magazine, then wrote to all the advertisers whose products you liked the look of, sometimes enclosing a stamped addressed envelope. A few days later the postman would bring you a pile of brochures and catalogues, and one of my favourites was from a Welsh company called Bearmach.
I think I managed to put together the specification for my dream Land Rover almost entirely from the Bearmach accessory catalogue. White eight-spoke steel wheels, KC Daylighter spotlights, bull bar, winch, mesh light guards and much more. About ten years later I actually bought a late Series IIA to almost exactly the specification that I had daydreamed about when I was supposed to be paying attention in class, but by that time my tastes had moved on to
