The Making Of A Real Sensation

The idea of manufacturing Land Rover was conceived by Rover Motor Company in the year 1946. During the immediate post world war time, Rover's luxury cars were available in the market. But those were of less demand as people could not afford to purchase luxury cars at that point of time. Apart from that, one major factor which restricted the luxury car production was the unavailability of raw materials. All the available raw materials were used by other industrial sectors which could bring in good revenue. Also, raw materials were exported to other countries to earn good foreign money as an attempt to bring back economic stability of countries after the Second World War.

Mr. Maurice Wilks, the chief premier designer of Land Rover came up with a brilliant idea of manufacturing a multipurpose utility vehicle, mainly intended to serve agricultural purposes. His idea was brilliant and it had close similarities with the Willys jeep which was very much popular at that point of time. Wilks' design also included a statement that military purposes can also be met by the new model, yet emphasizing its importance in agricultural fields. The greatest and revolutionary inclusion was the power take off concept, which narrowed the gap in vehicle market between jeeps and tractors.

The prototype of first Land Rover was unveiled in the year 1947 and the world looked it, so curiously. The unique peculiarity of the prototype was the position of steering wheel. Steering wheel was very well mounted around the middle of the cabin. As a matter of fact, this model of Land Rover was commonly known as the "centre steer". The jeep chassis laid the foundation of the centre steer. The body material was an alloy combination of aluminum and magnesium. After the Second World War, aluminum was available in plenty and hence the manufacturers opted for aluminum combination for the body parts. The body of Land Rover was a handmade one and they didn't apply much paint on the body parts. Mostly, the natural green color, typically military color, constituted the major part of Land Rover body.

The prototype testing was extremely successful as the results shown that the Land Rover can be used on any surfaces. Continuous testing was done on agricultural fields as well as on ploughing fields. The power take off facility found to be extremely useful when tested in agricultural fields. The tractor like usage of Land Rover was maximized after the prototype performance on agricultural fields. However, it has to be mentioned that, when the vehicle was ready for production off late, the authorities seemed to have overlooked the tractor like purpose and usage of Land Rovers.

The final production phase of initial Land Rover found some important differences from the prototype they have tested in fields and roads. In the prototype machine, centre steering was mounted in the middle of the vehicle. But, during the final production phase, it was brought to the side as normal. Apart from that, the body size was reduced to save time and cost during the final production phase.