It’s 75 years since the first Land Rover appeared, a vehicle that began with a sketch on an Anglesey beach and has remained part of the motoring landscape to this day. Pretty much unrivalled in appearance and ability, its popularity has never waned – and an old Landy is as coveted today as it’s ever been.
The second and third generations are the ones that interest us here, with the Series 2 arriving in 1958 and featuring mild styling changes and a choice of rugged petrol and diesel engines. Just three years later, further development gave us the Series 2A, this version ultimately gaining larger, more powerful engines and the likes of servo-assisted brakes. So successful was the Land Rover recipe, it was this generation that marked production of the 500,000th example.
The Series 3 duly arrived in 1971, the most notable changes during its life being a conventional plastic dashboard replacing the plain metal panel and the option of the Buick-derived 3.5-litre V8. There was even an attempt to add
