► Land Rover’s 70th anniversary
► Born 30th April 1948 in Amsterdam
► A look back on LR’s history
Many happy returns, Land Rover! The perennial 4×4 brand is celebrating its platinum anniversary, after the first-ever Series I Land Rover was unveiled at the 1948 Amsterdam motor show.
Over the course of 70 years, Land Rover has grown from just a manufacturer of basic, rough-and-ready 4x4s to an entire brand which has seen huge success. It has even spawned a whole luxury brand admired the world over.
Prof Dr Ralf Speth, JLR’s big boss, said ‘Land Rover was born with the launch of a single vehicle. Today our family of SUVs is testament to the pioneering spirit of innovation that has characterised Land Rover for seven decades.’
Land Rover has been celebrating its 70th anniversary since January, after they announced it would be resurrecting one of the original Amsterdam motor show prototypes unearthed not far from the Solihull plant.
The brand is also having a birthday bash at the Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works centre, which includes a special broadcast of how the Land Rover brand grew from a minnow in post-war Britain to one of the most successful car brands in the UK.
We’ve listed some iconic reviews and features of recent Land Rover to whet your appetite below…
The full story, according to Land Rover
1948 Land Rover Series I launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show
1953 Long Wheelbase version of the Series I is introduced
1956 Oxford and Cambridge teams complete on London to Singapore expedition in Series I
1958 Land Rover Series II unveiled with more refined design
1970 Original two-door Range Rover (the Classic) goes on sale
1971 Land Rover Series III launched
1972 Range Rover crosses Darien Gap on 18,000-mile Trans-America expedition
1976 1,000,000th Land Rover built
1979 A Range Rover wins the inaugural Paris-Dakar rally (and again in 1981)
1981 Land Rover begins legendary partership with Camel Trophy
1981 Four-door Range Rover released
1989 Land Rover Discovery, the third Land Rover model, goes on sale
1990 Original ‘Landie’ relaunched and renamed Defender
1994 Second generation Range Rover launched
1997 All-new Freelander is unveiled with innovative new technology: Hill Descent Control
2001 Third-generation Range Rover with all-round independent air suspension revealed
2003 Inaugural G4 challenge sees 16 teams traverse USA, South Africa and Australia
2004 Range Stormer Concept previews performance Range Rover and three-door body
2004 Discovery 3/LR3, the third-generation Discovery, launched at New York Motor Show
2005 All-new Range Rover Sport unveiled
2006 Freelander 2/LR2 launched. The first Land Rover to be manufactured at Halewood
2008 LRX concept car previews design language of a new luxury compact SUV
2009 Fourth generation of the Land Rover Discovery introduced
2010 Range Rover Evoque, the world’s first luxury compact SUV, makes global debut
2012 Fourth-generation Range Rover introduced – the first all-aluminium SUV
2013 New generation of Range Rover Sport unveiled at New York Motor Show
2014 Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division is officially launched
2014 Range Rover Sport SVR debuts, the fastest, most agile, most powerful Land Rover
2014 Discovery Vision Concept previews design vision for new family of Discovery vehicles
2014 Launch of Discovery Sport, a new premium compact SUV with 5+2 seating
2015 Trio of end-of-line Defender editions revealed with biggest sand drawing in UK
2015 Exclusive Range Rover SVAutobiography long wheelbase launched in New York
2015 Evoque Convertible becomes world’s first luxury compact SUV convertible
2015 One-of-a-kind Land Rover ‘Defender 2,000,000’ sells for £400,000 at charity auction
2016 Last Defender rolls off the production line
2016 All-new Discovery with world-first remote Intelligent Seat Fold technology launched
2017 Land Rover launches the fourth Range Rover, the Velar
2018 Limited Edition Range Rover SV Coupé debuts at Geneva Motor Show