As the chapter of “story+history of car+people” is about to open, it starts with the Land Rover brand. Maurice Wilks or Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks (1904–1963) was a British automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, he was the chairman of the Rover Company, a British car manufacturer. He was the founder of the Land Rover brand and responsible for the inspiration and concept work that led to the development of the Land Rover off-road utility vehicle.
By the summer of 1947 Rover had built a prototype Land Rover vehicle based on a Jeep chassis. In September 1947, the Rover company authorized the production of 50 pre-production models for evaluation purposes. The Land Rover was launched to the world at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show. ‘Defender 2,000,000’ – the two-millionth Series Land Rover and Defender produced at Land Rover’s Solihull, UK plant. The vehicle was built in May 2015 by an all-star cast of brand ambassadors and people from Land Rover’s history including Bear Grylls, Virginia McKenna OBE, and Stephen and Nick Wilks, sons of the founders of Land Rover.
The vehicle, built as part of a year of celebrations for the much-loved 4×4 which will cease manufacturing in Solihull in January 2016, boasts a host of distinctive and bespoke finishing features including an engraved map of Red Wharf Bay – where the design for the original Land Rover was first drawn in the sand, and a unique ‘no 2,000,000’ badge. Inside, the leather seats also feature the ‘Red Wharf Bay’ graphic and ‘no 2,000,000’ logos have been stitched on the headrests. A bespoke aluminum plaque, signed by everyone who helped to assemble the vehicle is fitted to the driver’s seat. Special S90 HUE registration plates provide a fitting tribute to the first-ever pre-production Land Rover, registration ‘HUE 166’.
*source: wikipedia, land rover web.
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