Here is a bit of History
, The Bus (an export model that never got exported due to national demand) was sold in Cardiff at Morsmith Motors in 1950 to a bloke from Droitwich who at some point worked for Austin, he had it for over 20 years (I think). I have spoken to the 2nd owner who has retired to the IOW, I managed this because of the great "vehicle search" on the SOC website, someone has been through the entire back catalogue of SOC news letters gathering reg and chassis n.o.s, mine first cropping up in 1981 in the For Sale section as a rebuilt hard top for £1450. Then in 1992 the 2nd owner was asking about a load of his old motors and in the list of regs was mine, I called the number (putting in the later 0 in the area code) and he was still there! An interesting old chap telling me quite a bit including it being a butchers van and also appearing in an 80s TV series (which I am still trying to find footage). So after the Bus moved up North it was passed around the Pennine area (maybe among Pennine Land Rover club members) It gradually moved the right side of the hill being owned by a few farmers etc.. until a friend of mine bought it in the early 90s.
It has seen quite a lot of action trailing in the Pennine L R club and if I had not bought from my mate (complete with a rough 2.25 petrol and 3 gallon tank in the back) it probably would have been bastardised into some sort of coiler or just run into the ground the way most "retro" comp motors went. It was pretty rough when I bought it (being a stupid young kid not knowing much about anything Land Rover...not much changes...apart from the young bit) and cost a small fortune early on as it was my everyday motor for years.
By rights it should not be here, but I am glad it is. It has transcended being a vehicle into an old best pal that has taken me to some amazing places for some amazing times. Doing all kinds of stupid stuff from overloading taking far too many of my mates to parties, to freezing girlfriends in winter, getting married in it, taking me to hospital for the birth of my kids, always being the family holiday transport, school run and adventuring all over europe.
It has been improved and modified to suit along the way, including the 200Tdi (which was cool when fitted 5 years ago but seems to be falling out of favour now), Although a bit on the big side for the 80, I have grown to love it and has saved a shed load in fuel getting up to 40 MPG on a run and in mine is not too harsh (and sounds great with the straight through pipe!). We also had to buy a trailer when the kids came along to get all our stuff in, so we purchased an M201 WW2 J33P trailer, I think this the first type of trailer ever towed by a LR by the Wilks brothers when they used their own one on the early Prototypes
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Anyway here are far too many chronological pics-
It was the 90s!
First time stuck!
The journey continues...