What Are The Essential Facts About The Series 1 Land Rover?

The Series 1 as the Land Rover was retrospectively called is the original and first went into production in 1948. With an 80 inch wheelbase, the first Land Rover was closely modelled on the American Willys Jeep that had been so successful a workhorse during the Second World War.

The first of the Series 1s were fitted with a 1596cc petrol engine, but were often swapped later for bigger power plants. The engine was often transplanted by trialling enthusiasts with a 3.5 V8 but this obviously required a number of other modifications in order to handle the extra torque. Not least among these modifications were uprating the brakes.

The Series 1 had a very long production run by today standards and there are still plenty of examples around today. By 1953, the 80 inch wheelbase was succeeded by an 86 inch wheelbase in order to provide a better load carrying capacity, and later a 107 inch long wheelbase variant was also launched. These models, too, were subsequently replaced with 88 and 109 inch wheelbases.