The record
This 1966 Series IIA 109″ Station Wagon, registration JYV 1D, served as personal transport for Queen Elizabeth II and was among the first station wagons fitted with the 2,625 cc six-cylinder petrol engine (81 bhp, about 73 mph). Built by the Rover Company at Solihull and priced at £1,580 when new, it received discreet royal upgrades rather than ceremonial coachwork: leather seats, a wooden dog guard for the Queen's dogs, and side steps to ease access, under an unadorned dark green finish that let it work the royal estates as an ordinary utility vehicle.
The Land Rover became one of the most photographed of the royal fleet when it appeared in candid press pictures of the Royal Family watching the Windsor Horse Trials in 1972, with a young Prince Edward perched on the roof. It remained in royal use until replaced by a One Ten V8 station wagon in 1983 (also preserved in the museum's collection), part of a Land Rover relationship with the Royal Family that began with a Series I commission in 1954.
The vehicle is preserved in the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust's permanent collection at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon (accession 2015-13-1), displayed in its plain olive-green livery — the specific paint name is not documented in the museum record, so this record leaves its factory colour unassigned. It has had latter-day royal outings too: the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge used it for a drive-in cinema event in Edinburgh in 2021, and it was driven in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee pageant in London in 2022. It has also toured with Land Rover Classic's "Vehicles of HM Queen Elizabeth II" exhibitions at the 2024 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and in New York.
