Land Rover celebrates its 70th birthday on Monday

Land Rover celebrates its 70th birthday on Monday

Keep an eye out on Land Rover’s social media and You Tube channel over the next few days as the brand celebrates its 70th birthday. 

It has already paid tribute to the old story of the Wilks brothers’ drawing of the original Land Rover shape in the sand at Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey, by recreating a giant 250m wide Defender outline drawn in the snow at 2,700m in the French Alps a few weeks ago (main picture above).

From what we’ve seen and heard so far, preparation is well underway at Land Rover in its Solihull and Coventry factories to mark the occasion and there will be a celebration broadcast on You Tube to pay tribute to the original Land Rover, as well as the Range Rover and Discovery families.

To watch the broadcast go to www.youtube.com/landrover at 20:00 BST on Monday.

You can also use the hashtag #LandRover70Years in your own social media posts to take part in the celebrations.

Prof Dr Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover’s current CEO said: “To reach the landmark of 70 years is truly special and we will mark it with a year of celebrations that represents Land Rover’s ‘Above and Beyond’ spirit and honours the people behind the world’s favourite SUVs.”

It’s fascinating to look back at some of the key moments of the past 70 years in this timeline below. Maybe there’s something new you didn’t know?

TIMELINE

1948       Land Rover Series I launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show
1953       Long Wheelbase version of the Series I is introduced
1956       Oxford and Cambridge teams complete on London to Singapore expedition in Series I
1958       Land Rover Series II unveiled with more refined design
1970       Original two-door Range Rover (the Classic) goes on sale
1971       Land Rover Series III launched
1972       Range Rover crosses Darien Gap on 18,000-mile Trans-America expedition
1976       1,000,000th Land Rover built
1979       A Range Rover wins the inaugural Paris-Dakar rally (and again in 1981)
1981       Land Rover begins legendary partnership with Camel Trophy
1981       Four-door Range Rover released
1989       Land Rover Discovery, the third Land Rover model, goes on sale
1990       Original ‘Landie’ relaunched and renamed Defender
1994       Second generation Range Rover launched
1997       All-new Freelander is unveiled with innovative new technology: Hill Descent Control
2001       Third-generation Range Rover with all-round independent air suspension revealed
2003       Inaugural G4 challenge sees 16 teams traverse USA, South Africa and Australia
2004       Range Stormer Concept previews performance Range Rover and three-door body
2004       Discovery 3/LR3, the third-generation Discovery, launched at New York Motor Show
2005       All-new Range Rover Sport unveiled
2006       Freelander 2/LR2 launched. The first Land Rover to be manufactured at Halewood
2008       LRX concept car previews design language of a new luxury compact SUV
2009       Fourth generation of the Land Rover Discovery introduced
2010       Range Rover Evoque, the world’s first luxury compact SUV, makes global debut
2012       Fourth-generation Range Rover introduced – the first all-aluminium SUV
2013       New generation of Range Rover Sport unveiled at New York Motor Show
2014       Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division is officially launched
2014       Range Rover Sport SVR debuts, the fastest, most agile, most powerful Land Rover
2014       Discovery Vision Concept previews design vision for new family of Discovery vehicles
2014       Launch of Discovery Sport, a new premium compact SUV with 5+2 seating
2015       Trio of end-of-line Defender editions revealed with biggest sand drawing in UK
2015       Exclusive Range Rover SVAutobiography long wheelbase launched in New York
2015       Evoque Convertible becomes world’s first luxury compact SUV convertible
2015       One-of-a-kind Land Rover ‘Defender 2,000,000’ sells for £400,000 at charity auction
2016       Last Defender rolls off the production line
2016       All-new Discovery with world-first remote Intelligent Seat Fold technology launched
2017       Land Rover launches the fourth Range Rover, the Velar
2018       Limited Edition Range Rover SV Coupé debuts at Geneva Motor Show

www.youtube.com/landrover