Registration: UEL 829X
Chassis Number: SALLHABV1AA/109071
Engine Number: 34138091F
Odometer reading 60590 miles
The Range Rover's origins can be seen as far back as the early 1950s when Maurice Wilks, Land Rover's principal design engineer, mooted the idea of a 'Road Rover'. Initially conceived as a bigger and better Land Rover, it never progressed beyond the stage of test models and the project was cancelled in 1958. The idea of a luxury Land Rover was taken up again in the mid 1960s by Spen King and Gordon Bashford, chief engineer and chief designer respectively of New Vehicle Projects, who set out to combine the practicality and cross-country ability of Land Rover engineering with the performance and comfort of Rover saloons. The Range Rover was successfully launched in June 1970. At that time, management felt confident in describing its versatility as 'four cars in one - a luxury car, a performance car, an estate car and a cross-country car'. It is a matter of history that Range Rover was received with tremendous enthusiasm and has subsequently fulfilled all these and many other roles with great success. Features such as power assisted steering, carpeted floors, air conditioning, cloth or leather seats and wooden interior trim were fitted later. It was a body-on-frame design with a box section ladder type chassis similar to contemporary Land Rovers. It utilised coil springs as opposed to leaf springs, permanent four-wheel drive and four-wheel disc brakes and was originally powered by the Rover V8 engine.
This lovely example was produced in 1980 and supplied to Patrick Motors in Poole, Dorset although they did not register the car until 1982, hence the X registration suffix. Our vendor is the seventh owner from new, the previous owner had the car resprayed in its current colour of Sandglow and carried out some engine works to include new piston rings, main bearings, new camshaft and release bearing, documentation of the works can be found within the history file. As this wonderful example was used very little between 1982 and 1987, being stored permanently under cover and covering little mileage after this point, it has survived in a highly original condition. The present owner has carried out various works, the details of which can also be seen on file, they include the carburettors being rebuilt and tuned, brake calipers rebuilt, rear and middle sections of the exhaust system were replaced with original Range Rover unit to name a few. The interior is original and the seats, carpets and rubber undermats are all in excellent condition.
All the rubber window seals and steel frames that are usually failing by this age are all in either good or excellent condition according to the vendor. The window glass is all original with every piece bearing the Triplex logo. The present owner has fitted rear retractable seatbelts to the factory mounting points and the car still has its Philips 'Turnlock' stereo and British Leyland handbook. Also, which is rare, this car comes with its original tool kit including its grease gun and tool roll. This wonderful time warp 4X4 is a low mileage example that as a result of a respray, regular general maintenance and preventative treatment, has been preserved in a highly original condition.
This car bears so many original features that are missing from restored vehicles, making this particular example very desirable.