Now more than 50 years old, the Range Rover was British Leyland's attempt to bring great road manners to the Land Rover family, in addition to the legendary off-road capability. Originally introduced in 1970, the first Range Rovers were more utility than luxury, but over the years the car evolved into the high-end machine we know and love today.
The Range Rover we see here is a late original car, produced in 1993 just before the second-generation P38A arrived and, as a long-wheelbase LSE model, is probably the peak of the first-gen car.
This Range Rover was first registered in May 1993, and would have set the original owner back somewhere north of £40,000 – more than £85,000 today.
From the documentation and history, it appears to have spent much of its life in and around the south coast counties - and it's been quite a life! Across the first 13 years on the road, it averaged 10,000 miles a year, and while the second owner brought that average down a little it still covered 50,000 miles in a similar period.
The most recent owner has added far fewer miles, as he carried out an extensive restoration, and the vehicle has since headed about as far from the south coast as it can get while still being in England, to a Range Rover specialist restorer in the north-east.
There's a significant binder of documentation with this Range Rover, the majority of which is from the car's second owner. Covering around 50,000 miles and 13 years of the car's life, it's pretty comprehensive, with bills and invoices from the smallest items to some very large ones. There's also tax discs and MOTs dating back to before this period too.
The most recent owner conducted a significant one-man restoration, and this was featured in the Land Rover Owner International magazine in February 2021; a copy of this magazine is included. There's also an original owner's manual too.
The LSE has a lot more interior than a regular five-door Range Rover, courtesy of an extra eight inches (20cm) added to the wheelbase. This makes an already pretty roomy car exceptionally generous in terms of all interior dimensions.
Interior colours are a mixture of beiges and wood, with thick light beige carpets giving way to darker leather seats. The five seats do exhibit some signs of wear – naturally mostly on the driver's seat – but there's no damage, just some creasing to the seat bases and the armrests.
Thick rubber mats protect the carpet throughout, and they've clearly done their job as there's no signs of any wear at all that we can spot. The boot carpet doesn't have similar protection, but is in no lesser condition, including that all-important “event” seat on the fold-down section of the tailgate. There looks to be sound deadening material beneath the carpet throughout too.
The wood in the cabin is a mixture of old and new, but it's largely not easy to spot which is which. Some cracking on the top of the automatic gear selector is about the only sign of aging. You might also spot there's an Overfinch-badged Momo steering wheel; this is part of a package of subtle upgrades we'll cover in the mechanicals section.
For the most part, the brown material covering areas like the door cards is in good condition throughout, with the occasional scuff, and a couple of nicks on the driver's side rear door.
As far as we can tell, every one of the electronic toys in the cabin works. There's a modern Sony Xplod head unit with Bluetooth and USB connectivity, and a large number of speakers dotted around the cabin, including in the rear roof headlining, which seems to be part of an audio upgrade.
The LSE is in beautiful condition on the outside. Despite there being rather a lot of it – the LWB Range Rover is more than 4.6 metres long and just under 1.8 metres high – the Plymouth Blue paintwork looks to be in extremely good condition. We hunted for any defects or marks and failed.
That goes for the wheels too, finished in the same colour in that classic Range Rover style and with no detectable damage or kerbing.
All of the vehicle glass is in spotless condition too, as are the headlights, tail lights, and foglights. The various black areas – the grille, valance, front and rear bumpers, door mirrors, and side rubbing strips – are all actually black too, rather than that weathered, mottled grey you'll often spot.
The door windows all feature extra strips of rubber which are part of an Overfinch sound deadening package, and can be a little reluctant to close as a result. Similarly the glass portion of the tailgate, which has new catches, is a little stiff on the nearside, but all do open and close if you're doing it right.
On the underside, the Range Rover is impressively tidy. There's evidence of undersealing, and all mechanical components seem to be free and clear of any drips or leaks.
First and foremost, the LSE came with the top-dog 4.2-litre version of the Rover V8 – which is technically a 4.3-litre engine at 4,275cc. That's good for 200hp and 250lbft, which might not seem like much now, but is enough to get the Range Rover going at a decent clip, and it sounds great too. On the road, the engine appears to be in perfect working order, with no warning wisps or any awkward noises.
That extends to the brakes and suspension too, and that latter part is where most of the Overfinch goodies come. The car has a documented air suspension upgrade, along with a precision steering box and quick ratio rack to give it even better road manners than the regular Rangey – to great success as far as we can tell.
We didn't have an opportunity to try out the low-ratio gearbox (although judging by the general condition underneath, the car hasn't spent much time off-road), but the regular auto 'box seemed to shift smoothly and without hesitation both up and down the gears, and in reverse.
The Range Rover is an icon, and the classic model probably most of all. When the Queen swears by a car, you know that it's doing something right.
In this particular guise you have probably the pinnacle of that first-generation car, with the most luxury and biggest engine in a single package, and with the Overfinch upgrades and recent enthusiast and specialist restoration it might be hard to find better.
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1993 Range Rover LSE
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