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What’s in Archie’s Barn?

1968 Land Rover

Reader Archie C thought we might be interested in seeing what he has parked in his barn. Normally we would have you guys guess what’s parked in there, but since one of his vehicles has some interesting history and is for sale, we decided to give you more details than normal. We will leave the other two vehicles unidentified, so you guys can figure out what they are. We doubt they will offer much of a challenge, but good luck anyways!

1979 Range Rover

The vehicle of greatest interest in Archie’s barn has to be this bright green 1979 Range Rover, named Kermit for  obvious reasons… It has some interesting history, ranging from being a display booth car to working as a tow car for Rothmans Racing. Sadly, Archie has yet been able to find any photos linking it to any significant car shows, but the previous owner claimed it had been displayed at the 1980 Earls Court Motor Show.

Ranger Rover's resting place

Proving this bit of history might be tough, since there wasn’t a motor show that year at Earls Court. The car does have some interesting features that might help prove it was a display car though. The Webasto full length canvas sun roof, full stainless twin exhaust system, teddy bear cloth carpets throughout, overdrive, custom color, full rust proofing, stainless bits that shouldn’t be stainless and brown vinyl pillars and headliner all help out. The fact that it was built in ’79, but registered as an ’80 also seems to point at it being a display model.

After it’s time as a display car, it was sold to a contract transporter for Rothmans Racing. It saw many years of use towing a double decker car trailer and it even towed a few crippled Escorts off the track. To make it a better tow vehicle, it was fitted with a vacuum brake system and the engine was gone through and blue printed by Rothmans. When fuel prices started climbing in the ’90s, the owner decided it was too expensive to drive on a regular basis so they sold it to a neighbor. From there it traded hands a couple more times before Archie’s father bought it. After a few years of service it went into the barn and has been there since.

Range Rover Interior

Archie’s father has decided it’s time to let it go to a new home where it can be appreciated and be put back on the road. If you’re in the UK and interested in making an offer on it, send Archie an email and he will put you in contact with his dad. We want to thank him for sharing his barn with us and we hope he is able to find a good home for this Range Rover, even if it doesn’t turn out to be a display car, it’s still worth saving!

Comments

  1. Avatar Liam

    I have sent you an email Archie….

    Like 0
  2. Avatar cliffyc

    The Land Rover is a Series 2A diesel (Perkins unit I think..)my dad had one of these with the 2.2 petrol 4cyl engine (it was said to run on the lowest grade of fuels even a parafin- petrol mix!) due to low state of tune in the engine .The dash is missing a couple of warnig lights and switches.It does have a heater (an option useful here in UK!).The red and yellow knobs on the two lever on the transmission tunnel are to engage Hi-Low gearing for off-road use,the ‘box was 4 speed.The back of the chassis (frame in USA !)had a round cutout for optional PTO as the Series 1 had been designed as a type of all-around use tractor and you could power all manner of agricultural and other types of machne (pumps saw benches etc).This was phased out on Series 3,launched in ’71.The wheelbase was 88″ on this SWB model .The number plate (license plte)seems to have been refitted over on the left,screws may have corroded through as most of the body is aluminium (aluminum sorry US )most had the\ squre plate fitted on the right side in UK.Great old vehicles and you can get every part still for them due to a massive aftermarket industery for Land Rovers.

    Like 0
  3. Avatar Rovinman

    1978 : First NEC Motor show in Birmingham
    1979 : Formation of Land Rover Limited, as a separate and autonomous company
    1980 : NEC Arena opens,
    Solihull is now exclusively for Land Rover manufacture.
    3 new types of Range Rovers developed :
    a) 5-door Monteverdi five-door Range Rover conversion introduced.
    b) Automatic ‘Torqueflite’ transmission introduced
    c) “In Vogue” model, ( developed with the help of Wood and Pickett.)
    However WJM 849 Y is a 1982 registration year
    Does this vehicle have any of these features ?

    Like 0
  4. Avatar Archie...

    It is a IIA diesel but standard rover engine. The landy is still off the road and has been since the 90s but is nearly ready to meet the black stuff again…

    Like 0
  5. Avatar jim s

    land rover, range rover, and a mgb. all very nice and interesting. i hope the one your selling goes to a good home. thanks for sharing.

    Like 0
  6. Avatar Johnno

    The Range Rover is of 1982 vintage. The system at the time used an alphabetical system using the end digit of the number plate.
    1979 V
    1980 W
    1981 X
    1982 y
    From then the year letter was placed at the beginning, so in 1983 it began with an A.

    Cheers

    Like 0

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