BASE VEHICLESeries I 80″BUILT BYLand RoverIN SERVICE1952OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTIONOne expedition vehicleLAYOUT4 wheels · 80″
The record
The Imperial College team rebuilt a used short-wheelbase Land Rover in London before crossing Africa and the Americas in 1960. The original report records a factory-reconditioned engine, repeated rear spring-leaf failures and a final reinforcement in Bogotá. It also describes route maps painted on the doors. Bill Melbourne’s period colour photographs, reproduced in the July 2024 Ottawa Valley Land Rovers newsletter, establish the dark green body, tan windowless tilt, bonnet spare, square RPG 559 plate and recovery plates carried across the bumper. The model follows those expedition views and the photographed map with white continental outlines and a muted route line; coastline detail is simplified to suit the procedural model. The yellow door shown beside the original map in the newsletter belongs to another vehicle, Yukon Gold, and is not used for this livery. Precise paint codes and hidden rear equipment are unconfirmed; the rear plate position is a restrained standard-body interpretation.
Specification
MANUFACTURERLand Rover
MANUFACTURED1952–1952
PRODUCTION RUNOne expedition vehicle
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
WHEELBASE80 inches
REGISTRATIONRPG 559
CHASSIS26104030, as recorded by OVLR
CREWBill Melbourne, David Hyde and Ian Gartshore
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINESeries I
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE80″
CATEGORYSpecial · Expedition & Campers
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Imagery
No published image yetA rendering impression or a free-licence photograph will appear here once one is published