Land Rover has built its last Defender ? bringing to an end a production run lasting some 68 years.
The final Defender ? a model that can trace its history right back to the very first Land Rover of 1948 ? rolled off the production line at Solihull on Friday 29th January, as part of a celebration event attended by more than 700 current and former Land Rover employees.
Those at the event were able to view and drive 25 of the most important models in the history of the Defender and its direct predecessors the Series Land Rovers, including the first production model ?Huey?.
At the same time Jaguar Land Rover announced that the production line, from which more than two million Land Rover Series and Defender models have emerged, is to be the base for a new Heritage Restoration Programme. A team of experts, including long-serving employees who worked on the Defender, will oversee restoration of Series Land Rovers repatriated form around the world. The first restored models will go on sale in July 2016.
The final Defender production model will not be sold, instead going into Jaguar Land Rover?s Heritage Collection.
Defenders and their Series predecessors have been used all over the world in a vast range of guises and by an equally diverse mix of owners, from farmers to members of various Royal Families.
The vehicle has always scored on its ruggedness and simplicity, but with the design unable to accept many modern safety features and each consisting of 7,000 parts and taking 56 ho...