Land Rover Defender History

The iconic British marque Land Rover sports the familiar profile that has been in the minds of the general public since it started in 1948

. For about 37 years, the Land Rover went through minimal styling changes from its Series I through Series III and never really ended with the last Series III rolling of the Solihull factory in 1985.

Early History

Its really just a name change to distinguish its line of models that became increasingly necessary to do in the 80s. When Land Rover ended its Land Rover Series III line of 4WD off road SUVs in 1983, it did just that with the introduction of the Land Rover 90 3-door model and 110 5-door station wagon models based on wheelbase lengths.

The Series III would continue for another 2 years and see its last specimen roll off the Solihull production plant in 1985. At the time of the Defender launch, the only other Land Rover model in production was its slightly upscale Range Rover, launched in 1970.

Still owned by the British Leyland Corporation, the Land Rover Ninety and one-ten was followed immediately by the longer 127 and the 130 in the same year. They were built on a separate production line. It would take another five years in 1990 for the series to finally assume the Defender name.

The Defender of the 90s to the present

In 1986, British Leyland became the Rover Group Plc and was privatized in 1988 before getting sold to British Aerospace. It was under the stewardship of British Aerospace when the biggest styling change to the Land Rover happened in late 1990. The Land Rover line up became the Land Rover Defender which featured the same 3-door and 5 door station wagon with variants in between like the 4-door pick-up and 2-door soft tops.

A year earlier, the Land Rover Discovery was introduced sporting a new turbo diesel engine and more power but using the same chassis on the same production like as the Land Rover 90 and 110. It was positioned to compete directly with emerging mid-ranged SUVs in city roads while the more spartan Defender line coming out a year later was positioned more for the more utilitarian 4X4 all terrain all purpose markets.

In 1994, the Rover Group lost British ownership when British Aerospace sold the division to Germanys BMW. At about the same time, Land Rover Defenders were launched in the US with heavy modifications to comply with stricter US DoT road regulations for crash safety and lighting.

Through the last decade of the 20th century, the Land Rover Defender had attempted to compete with the upmarket range of SUV offering options that uplifted the basic utility vehicles to above-spartan specifications. The company came out with the 50th anniversary Defender in 1998 with automatic transmission and air-conditioning using the same Range Rover 4 liter V8 engine.

With Ford Motors taking over the helm from BMW in 2000, it would take another 7 years for the Defender to see major changes that saw its Td5 2.5 liter 5-cylinder turbo diesel get mated to Fords DuraTorq transmission.

The 2007 Td5 engine would be the last Land Rover engine to be made at its Solihull plant. A year later, Land Rover ownership passed on to Indias Tata Motors Group which is expected to overhaul the 25-year old design in 2012 under Project Icon.

by: Simon Drew

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