On April 30, 1948, the first Land Rover was shown at the Amsterdam Motor Show. It was designed by Maurice Wilks, an engineer at Rover. The idea of ??creating a simple and reliable SUV was prompted by constantly breaking American jeeps, one of which he used on his farm. Maurice decided that the need for these vehicles would be quite large since at that time there were only two companies engaged in the production of such cars — Jeep and Kubelwagen.
Maurice brought his brother Spencer to work on the new project. The 1.6-liter engine was taken from the Rover P3 60 model. The transmission made it possible to manually connect four-wheel drive and change the gear ratio. The roof was awning and the body was made of aluminum. The Wilks initially wanted to make a steel body but those days steel was in great deficit, it was imported to the UK. And the aluminum which was used to produce aircraft during the war created large reserves in the country. Therefore, the aluminum body was cheaper than steel and, in addition, less susceptible to corrosion which is especially important in the humid British climate. The reliability of the first Land Rovers is evidenced by the fact that almost 75% of all the manufactured units is still on the move.
Cover: avtovolgograda.ru
