What got you started in Land Rovers?

[lincoln lass]

Great looking landy.

What's the make and size of tyres you've got on there?

Brian

[Pete]

My first Rover and still my driver was purchases 24 years ago. I was 15 just getting my permit and my cousin M Capozza had a couple of heavily modified Rovers that I would always drool over. After seeing his trucks I had to have one. In my search for a Rover, my father came accross a 1963 Ford Thunderbird and I had to make a decision, was my first car going to be a 1963 Ford Thunderbird or a 1972 SIII LR. After inspecting the Rover with my cousin and taking it for a test drive (both on and off road) he convinced me it was a no brainer.....been driving it ever since.

[LaneRover]

My first Rover and still my driver was purchases 24 years ago. I was 15 just getting my permit and my cousin M Capozza had a couple of heavily modified Rovers that I would always drool over. After seeing his trucks I had to have one. In my search for a Rover, my father came accross a 1963 Ford Thunderbird and I had to make a decision, was my first car going to be a 1963 Ford Thunderbird or a 1972 SIII LR. After inspecting the Rover with my cousin and taking it for a test drive (both on and off road) he convinced me it was a no brainer.....been driving it ever since.

You're cousin is a great guy, I try to stop in and see him when I am in Maine. Don't always make it but it is always good to see him when I do.

[jac04]

About 23 years ago I was living in York Harbor Maine. One day I saw this crazy cool vehicle. A marine blue 1969 IIA 88". It had a roof rack & Michelin XCLs on it including one on the hood and one on the rear door. I knew right then that I just had to have one. Turned out that it belonged to the father of a girl I worked with at my summer job. I got to talking with him and he put me in touch with (the late) Ron Mowry, who had a farm that was just full of Land Rovers - Rovers parked everywhere and barns full of rover parts.

Ron informed me about how my daily car was "vanilla" and it was now time to sample some of the flavors available. I looked around for a little while and ended up buying 2 Land Rovers from an old guy in Keene, NH. One was a 71 88" and the other was a 63 88" pickup all original with 53k on the clock. Both were running & driving & complete. I bought them both for $2000. Man, those were the days. I guess the rest is history.

[TeriAnn]

Back in the 1950's travelogues were common shows on US television and I watched everyone I could find, learning that there were places and things outside the normal paths set out for young girls. Just about every travelogue that was filmed outside North America was shot from a Land Rover. The farther from civilization, the more apt the mode of transportation was a Land Rover. Then in the early 1960's naturalist Marlin Perkins drove a Land Rover in his show "The Wild Kingdom". When growing up I got it into my mind that if one were to travel off the map into the unknown, where the map legend warns "Here be dragons", the only vehicle that will get you there and back again was a Land Rover.

During my last year of college I saw my first Land Rover in person. I was renting a room in a large house with several other students near campus, one of whom worked on cars to gain rent and spending money. He took in a 109 station wagon to replace the inner hub seals. When I first saw it I was overawed. Before me was a charismatic legend out of my childhood. The vehicle that could take me to any place I could want to go.

A few years later, while I was living in Seattle and looking for a used car I saw an add for a 1968 Land Rover 88. My soul cried for freedom from the mundane and I took her home. I learned what the knobs did and started my first tentative ventures off road.

Then more boldly ventured off the road maps just to see if what was around the next bend or over the next hill. Confident that my Land Rover would make it past any dragons who lair off the maps.

[TedW]

Does anyone remember a book called "Forty Years of Land Rovers (or something like that)?" I came upon a copy in the late '80s and was bitten by the kool photos of what I would later learn were Series trucks.

A short time later I was shown a Marine blue SIII under plastic in my wife's grandfather's barn. Totally rusted out, but that point the hook was set so I started looking in earnest for a good project truck.

It wasn't long (August of '91) before I found a reasonably nice 1970 IIA. I still have it (see avatar). I got the name of the original owner and spoke to him - turns out he bought the truck new at Tibbetts Auto in Hampden, Maine - about 5 miles from where I grew up. I would have been 11 when he got it.

He also told me that he rolled it over once - which explained why a few things were a bit "crooked."

[Escargo]

I'm with you, Les. It was Daktari! 35 years later I started dealing with Creed in Montana, where I lived, to build a series on a 110 frame. Three years later I traded for an 88 in his yard that came out of Canada(?). After messing with that for a frustrating year, I sent it to Lanny. Best decision i ever made. That was five years ago and I'm sure I would still have it in a pile of pieces rather than enjoying it.
Hans

[REDrum]

My father sold Landys when I was a kid (and other British Layland). Father had a SIIA 109 & my mom had a SIII 88 (and 2 MG 1100s) And when other families had mercury outboards on skiffs, we had British Seagulls. We were THAT family on the block...

The first car I drove was a landy 109, with no syncro anything. Weekends my father and I would drive to the beach in the 109 and pull out stuck cars and trucks w/ the PTO winch.

I was also addicted to Daktari as a child, and some day I will own a zebra striped land something. Wife vetoed the LWB Zebra RR for sale in Fla

So that started it for me, its in my DNA Since then....

Almost bought a D90 in 95 when they came out, almost... (woulda, coulda, shoulda...)

And, in some sort of rebelious way, I've owned (5) Land Cruisers (2 fj40s, fj60, ujz100) and loved'm all. But, next week I take delivery of my first Landy, a '76 SIII!!!!

But not selling the UJz100 quite yet...

[ybt502r]

I'm with Les…it was Daktari on TV, with a little MofO's Wild Kingdom thrown in. I loved the Daktari Rover that was painted like a zebra. And then I read Born Free, which also had pictures of living in Africa with a Rover. So all three hit the same button - Africa, in the wild, in a Series Rover.

That's probably why I bought a Land Cruiser first (and second), then a Jeep, before I was able to actually get a SIII.

[bmohan55]

I stumbled on to Rovers, while looking to replace the wife's Jeep Cherokee we test drove a 2004 Disco and loved it. Later we joined the Rover Owners Association of Virginia (ROAV) and attended their outings in it. We were blown away by it's capibilities! After a time I started noticing those Series trucks, those drivers really seemed to be having alot more fun on the trails!
Few years later I bought my Series 3, paid too much for it and have put way too much into it to get her right (still not done) but I don't have any regrets...the wife on the other hand, well....

[73series88]

because there so different.
aaron

[amcordo]

My reason is kind of rediculous. I started playing a game called FarCry 2. There are a bunch of vehicles in it, including jeeps. But my favorite was this little number:

http://guides.gamepressure.com/farcry2/gfx/word/1578439359.jpg

[fishguy]

Back in 1994 or 95 friends I had known for a few years (who had a 109) invited us to go camping with them for a weekend...it was a rally...I saw the first 88's I can remember there and had to have one. Skip ahead about 2 years and I purchased a disassembled SIII...spent a bit over a year putting it back together and drove it for the next 10. Then the frame split and now I'm building it again. Only better, and more slowly

[siii8873]

my illness (as my friend calls it) began when I was looking for an older 4wd. I was at a party and got talking to a guy who was restoring one.
We talked on for some time and afterwards it sparked my interest. One then came up for sale locally and I bought it. Pulled it in the garage to repair a tstat leak. Ended up doing a frame swap and reconditioning the entire truck. Have bought 3 of them since and drive one every day. Ended up selling the one I restored.

[lincoln lass]

It amazes me that you all love Land Rovers as much as you do and have a very similar thread of why you do.

As Iv'e said elsewhere in the forum, the best help I had when restoring LL was off this forum and it's technical section.

Keep em coming.