What's all this then?
The recently-established 'Classic' arm of Land Rover and Jaguar has really been flexing its muscles. Not content with being the go-to source for parts and accessories for original Jag and Landie vehicles, there's also now the Classic project to rebuild original 1950s XKSS sports cars at a cool £1.5 million a pop.
Land Rover's answer to the XKSS project is a little less high-performance, but far more adorable. Land Rover Classic has announced that it will take 25 original 1948 Series 1 Land Rovers and restore them to perfect 'Reborn' factory specification. No prices have been announced yet, but even though values for good restored Series 1s have spiked well above the £25k mark, these should be a bit more affordable than the XKSS cars...
The Series 1s will be returned to the original factory at Solihull and rebuilt and restored in the very assembly area that only recently stopped making new Defenders. Customers are of course being encouraged to get involved and come to the factory to see their 'Reborn' cars being rebuilt. That will be done with original parts of course, and original colours including RAF Blue, Dove Grey and, of course, Bronze Green. You can see the first fruits of Land Rover's labours in the project at the huge Techno Classica Essen classic car exhibition in Germany this week.
Tim Hannig, Director, Jaguar Land Rover Classic, said: "The launch of the Reborn initiative represents a fantastic opportunity for customers to own a valuable and collectable automotive icon. Reborn showcases Land Rover Classic's expertise in restoring and maintaining our loyal customers' prized Land Rovers. It also demonstrates the business' commitment to supporting customers with original and meticulously sourced parts for Land Rover models that have been out for production for longer than 10 years."
Neil Briscoe - 7 Apr 2016