The Land Rover was designed by brothers Maurice and Spencer Wilks - Chief Engineer and Managing Director of the Rover Car Company - in the late 1940s. Having examined their family-owned Willys Jeep, they were convinced they could produce something superior.

The Land Rover was intended to be a stop-gap vehicle for Solihull and with postwar steel shortages, aluminium was used for the body panels. This is the 'number one' pre-production Land-Rover and was sold in July 1948 to a farmer in Warwickshire. At the close of its working life it was bought back by the Rover Company to be restored to its original condition.