Beautiful thread, Sudarshan sir. Have been a fan of the Land Rover name for long, and it is my dream to restore and own a Series Land Rover.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Polly Singh so is there anyway to tell how many land rovers were imported into India , the series ones that is ???
Polly |
Many, to put it mildly.
I am a member of the Land Rover series 1 club (LRSOC) of UK, a nice bunch of Series 1 enthusiasts with a huge database of resources, an amazing collection of photos and knowledge, and a good in house magazine. A few days back I had a chat with Mike Bishop, the Technical Officer of the club on this very topic. While it is impossible to quantify how many series 1s came into India, I can give you a few pointers.
1. Dewars Garage in Dalhousie, Kolkata was the only appointed seller/service centre for Land Rover vehicles in India. In 1948, when the first batch of vehicles came in as CBUs, 2 were destined for the Indian army (incidentally the first army to put the vehicle to field use) and 10 were civilian orders. I even have the chassis nos:
Chassis Date In Date Out To
R860012 27/08/48 14/09/48 Dewars
R860013 23/07/48 17/08/48 Dewars
R860017 13/08/48 17/08/48 Dewars
R860018 04/08/48 17/08/48 Dewars
R860019 19/08/48 26/08/48 Dewars
R860023 19/08/48 06/09/48 Indian Army
R860024 08/08/48 06/09/48 Indian Army
R860028 16/08/48 17/08/48 Dewars
R860043 13/08/48 26/08/48 Dewars
R860044 23/08/48 26/08/48 Dewars
R860045 19/08/48 27/08/48 Dewars
R860046 30/08/48 14/09/48 Dewars
This was followed by 2 more lots of 13 and 19 vehicles respectively.
Just for the ignoramuses, this is what the first LRs looked like:
2. In 1949 the first batch of 12 CKD cars came in. I have the chassis nos for these too, if you're interested.
3. Post this, the details get sketchy. This is because there were 3 routes through which the cars came in. Civilian orders (through Dewars), Army orders (direct shipping) and vehicles from specialized agencies like the UN, NATO, WHO etc.
At the moment, Dewars is just one building away from my office. Its a Maruti dealership. I've talked to senior people there about their past associations with Rover group (and Land Rover) and they all give me funny stares. Sob sob.
In fact the topic of these agency vehicles is quite interesting. Most were standard 107/109 SWs, but some (like this NATO ambulance custom built by Pilchers) were rarities.
OT-An Engineering company in Kolkata made a clone of this NATO ambulance for the factory of Bengal Potteries. This vehicle lay dormant for many years before Uday Bhan Singh rescued it. It may be with UBS or SirAlec at the moment

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Anyway, have many more facts and pics to share. But right now, just want to sit back and enjoy this great thread by LR lovers.
Edit: Ambulance pictures courtesy Mike Bishop's archives