Wilks got started on his design with parts of his own Jeep. Birmabright, a rust resistant and lightweight alloy developed for aircraft building, helped to secure the Land Rover’s low centre of gravity. Wilks selected engines for two main strengths – huge amounts of torque and easy field service.

Wilks’ careful planning and excellent design decisions ensured that the Land Rover would be one of the most enduring vehicle designs of all time. In fact these cars were so tough, many original models can still be found on places like used cars marketplace autoweb. With a fe tools and a little experience of mechanics, anyone with determination can keep a Land Rover running indefinitely. Land Rover claims that 75 percent of their vehicles are still functioning today. British Army engineers actually kept Land Rovers running on banana oil, covering seventy thousand miles in North Africa during the war in that BMW! For millions of owners all over the world, the Land Rover remains the only vehicle they consider up to the job – thanks to it’s unricvalled solidity in the face of anything you throw it at.

In contrast, how many modern cars will still be running in 65 years? Can a novice keep them going? Without expensive conversions, how many will run on substitute fuels? These vehicles stand as a reminder of how things used to be engineered. An age when objects were built to last, and the ridiculous modern concept of ‘planned obsolescence’ had not yet eroded industrial standards. In fact there are very few things available today that are meant to last forever. This rot has spread throughout industry and is not limited to any one niche. The products of famous makers such as Audi vehicles today are expected to fail often enough for us to keep them well fed. Not the old Land Rover.

For many fans, there is no doubt about the Land Rover’s status as a real design classic.