• Outstanding professional nut and bolt restoration

• Australian import

• Matching serial numbers

• Complete engine re-manufacture

• Very unique VIN plates

The mid-sized 4x4 sport utility vehicle, produced between the years of 1969 up until 1996 by the British Leyland corporation, was the first generation to use the Range Rover name. Launched under the motto “A Car For All Seasons”, and honestly, they weren’t wrong. British Leyland had succeeded in making their car just as good off the road as it was on the road - arguably better than the majority of four-wheel-drive competition the car faced at the time.

During the late 70’s and early 80’s, the all-season 4x4 was making a statement to how well versed it is by winning the four-wheel-drive class in the very first Paris-Dakar Rally, and prior it was among the first two vehicles (alongside the Land Rover Series IIA) to successfully travel both American continents from north to south from 1971 to 1972, which included trekking through the Darién Gap.

Originally manufactured and dispatched to the Australian market to be sold at the Leyland Motor Corporation of Australia, Melbourne, this 1976 Range Rover was imported over to Grangemouth, Scotland in June of 2020 with the nickname “Goldie” thanks to the beautiful Bahama Gold paint job the vehicle wears oh so well. Also this vehicle is confirmed as having a fully matching set of serial numbers by the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust. 

This Range Rover is VIN plated in a very unique way, with both a Rover-British Leyland UK manufacturers VIN plate as well as a Leyland Motor Corporation of Australia manufacturers VIN plate. The unique Rover-British Leyland UK Ltd VIN plate on this vehicle highlights a time where British Leyland was nationalised due to financial difficulties, with formation of a new holding company, British Leyland Ltd. The name of the company Rover-British Leyland UK Ltd, noted on one of the VIN plates, bears no historical record, and may have been set up by the newly created nationalised British Leyland UK ro export the vehicles. To the owners knowledge, no other vehicle survives with these official VIN plates - making this truly a one-of-a-kind.

Another very unique characteristic of this Range Rover is the placement of a LEYLAND badge on both of the front wings above the Range Rover badge itself, which is extremely rare, and to the owner's knowledge this type of badging is unseen on any other surviving Range Rover Classic out there to date. It is unknown whether this badge was placed in the manufacturing plant in Solihull England, or by the Leyland dealer in Australia. Regardless, the use and placement of this badge has never been seen pre 1975 or post 1975 production.

This beautiful restoration was documented in full from start to finish, with a dossier put together by the current owner to showcase the work and details about the Range Rover. Within this dossier, the unique characteristics of the vehicle as described above are mentioned, along with the listed serial numbers for the cars chassis, gearbox, front axle and rear axle which are confirmed as matching by the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust.

A timeline of the build is displayed with photos of the vehicle along with brief descriptions of each stage; removal of the engine, body removal from the chassis, stripping of components, chassis blasting and painting, body restoration and painting, wheel restoration and vehicle rebuild. The owner carries invoices and receipts within his restoration portfolio.

V5 paperwork is available with the owner with the car being registered here in the UK with a valid MOT present.

During the restoration process of this vehicle, the entire cab was restored, primed and painted inside and out, so all the floors are solid original metal with a lovely fresh paint job under the carpets, not a single piece of this car was missed.

Originally this Range Rover sported a Palomino PVC interior, however due to the cost of replacements of these (around £3,000 just for the covers to be fitted) the current owner had the seats retrimmed in beautiful nappa leather to the original Palomino pattern, which we think is a much nicer option, adding a little extra refinement to the vehicle. Upon importing the car from Australia, it had no floor carpets throughout the vehicle, so the owner created a template from the floor of the vehicle while the restoration was in process and had carpets specially made for the car, ensuring a precise fit.

The gauges all function properly as they should with no warning lights apparent, and all of the dashboard controls are present and functional with all the screen printed information readable and in good condition. The clocks read in KM rather than miles due to the Australian origin. The heater vents still move freely too as do the heater controls on the dashboard. The driver and passenger seats move without any force to the mechanisms, with the tilting functionality still working to allow passengers to climb into the rear seats.

New dashboard, headliner and door cards were sourced for the vehicle, the door cards were also retrimmed in nappa leather to tie in with the rest of the interior. It is worth noting that the rear seat bench does show some signs of slight leather stretching as seen in the photographs, it is quite minor, however.

This interior truly is nothing short of incredible - you can see the amount of hours dedicated to a project such as this and appreciate it for what it is. Seeing a car this age in such beautiful condition is worthy of praise.

This is an exterior you could sit back and stare at for quite some time. Upon restoration the vehicle was dismantled to its major components and tackled one at a time. With the body shell, it was fully dismantled and the high impact areas were rubberised on the underbody in order to prevent the vehicle from corroding in the future, after this the shell was refined and painted in two pack direct gloss Bahama Gold - the vehicles original colour. The chassis, axles, and running gear were completely stripped down and media blasted down to bare metal. After this, they were refinished in EpoxyMastic which is exceptionally durable to help stop any future corrosion throughout any of the vehicle's major components as well as giving an exceptionally clean look to the undercarriage. 

The current owner has kept the front cowl under the bonnet with its original Patina and original VIN plates - however he states that the does have a spare front cowl painted in Bahama Gold to go along with the vehicle if the new owner prefers a cleaner appearance. We believe the original piece with the 2 VIN plates may very much appeal to the purists out there!

We’re told that during the process of painting the bodyshell, there have been 8 coats of paint to allow for any future refinement. Since the painting has been completed, it has only been cut once, so there is still plenty of room for improvement to make the finish glass smooth if the new owner wishes to do so.

The only thing to point out to the new owner of the vehicle is that the rear window seals cannot be sourced, so instead of being replaced they have had to be reused and do show signs of degradation due to this. The owner states if he could find replacements they would be done in a heartbeat.

As you can see by the images of the underside of this Range Rover, everything is brand new with the receipts and invoices to back it up. There is a large invoice from Allan Crow Services listing over 150 parts totalling a price tag of over £2,000 - and that’s not all. There are further invoices that show the engine remanufacturing from the best V8 remanufacturing specialist in the UK, ACR (Automotive Component Remanufacturing) with a total cost of £8,378.40. The owner tells us that since all of this work was completed the car has travelled a total of maybe 10 or 15 miles - so as you can see, it’s still all brand new. During the engine's time with ACR the engine was completely stripped down and rebuilt using all new components and new ancillaries.

Diving into the aforementioned invoice from ACR, the details listed are as follows;

Installed to the newly restored 3.5 V8 is a set of straight through headers which present you with a beautiful burble upon start-up accompanied by a full stainless steel exhaust system. Thanks to the headers and new exhaust system alongside the free flowing K&N filters, the performance of the vehicle has been upped from 130bhp to 150bhp as proven on the dynamometer - due to this upgrade in performance, the brakes have been upgraded to ventilated discs to assist with improved stopping power and prevent brake fade. A worthy upgrade on a vehicle of this size! The owner does state that the original air filter housing as well as the original exhaust manifolds will be included in the sale just in case the new owner wishes to revert these back to standard form, they can do so.

The fuel tank, fuel pump and all of the fuel lines have been replaced as have all of the copper brake lines throughout the vehicle, as well as the addition of adjustable shock absorbers with teflon bushings. 5x brand new tyres were purchased for the car which includes one for the spare wheel in the boot which is protected and covered by carpet.

We’re assured that every single mechanical component on this vehicle has either been completely replaced or restored. There is no worry about unwelcome noises present while the vehicle is running or driving, and there won’t be for quite some time we imagine.

A car worthy of preservation and admiration. Truly among the finest and most unique examples available due to the existing VIN plates and the vast amount of work carried out to preserve and future proof this vehicle. A fine piece of automotive jewelry that has been carefully and expertly crafted. This is one you don’t want to miss.