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It was no coincidence that, at 80 inches,
the Land Rover’s chassis was the same length as the American-built
Jeep’s, whose chassis was the basis for the Rover product. Major improvements
were made to it however, mainly involving adaptations that enabled
the Land Rover to power as much extra machinery as possible. The
National Institute of Agricultural Engineering tested an early Land
Rover, using it in field trials that included ploughing, harrowing,
muck spreading, potato harvesting, rolling and pulling a reaper; the
Land Rover passed such tests with flying colours.
The Land Rover was Britain’s first
four-wheel-drive vehicle of its type, and it is a credit to the
company that the design was so right... particularly when you
consider the speed with which the development was rushed through.
The Jeep that inspired it was an extremely well designed vehicle
though, therefore giving Land Rover something of a head-start.
Like the Jeep, the Land Rover boasted a
separate box-section chassis frame, front-mounted engine, with a
gearbox in unit with it, transfer gearing behind the “box, and
propeller shafts running backwards and forwards to live front and
rear axles. Semi-elliptic road springs and telescopic dampers
provided the suspension system.
Performance was reasonably lively for the
time, the 1,6 liter engine fitted initially developing 50 bhp. |
