DISCOVERED
just 30 per year -- but have also been given a once-over to make them more tractable in the modern world. New ZF eight-speed gearboxes, New V8s, special wheels and interior touches are all the order of the day. To the naked eye, they are all classic Defenders but with a showroom sheen not seen for quite some time. Speaking of showroom quality: I will admit that my visions of a workshop in a facility entitled “Jaguar Land Rover Classics” were somewhat more spartan than what’s actually going on here. The lighting, the white walls and floors, the pristine lifts, cranes and tools without a spec of dust on them remind much more of Maranello than the Midlands. It’s one thing to see these vehicles displayed nicely up front, but to walk through here and see them on lifts and rolling roads and jacks in all their naked glory is a real treat. Look closely, and you may even see some things that haven’t quite been released; for now, all the Defender models have hard tops but I could have sworn I saw one with a cloth top just over there… What’s really interesting here is the confluence of what JLR has done over the years. It’s a rare thing to walk through a workshop and see an E-Type’s hood at one station, a Defender’s door at another and oh look! There’s an ultra-rare 1-of-300 XE SV Project 8 models leaving the body shop there and what looks like a Defender-based Bowler CSP Prototype making its way out of the rear of the shop and wait a minute… rear of the shop? What do we have here? Well, what we have here can only be described as a warehouse crammed with all things Jaguar, Land Rover, Range Rover and Swallow Sidecar Company, which would become “Jaguar” in 1945. Jaguar Land Rover doesn’t really have a company museum as such – an argument could be made for the British Motor Museum nearby, but we digress – so this is essentially as close as you’re going to get to anything “factory spec” or “official”. Defenders of all eras and body styles (including a cab-over military version);
"It’s one thing to see these vehicles displayed nicely up front, but to walk through here and see them on lifts and rolling roads and jacks in all their naked glory is a real treat."
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