1966 Land Rover 110-inch ¾-Ton Bonneted Control Prototype

Chassis number: 110-1

Registration number: VXC 100F

Engine type: 3.0 6cyl Petrol

Gearbox type: 5 Speed

Vehicle spec:

This vehicle is the first of three prototypes built as a private venture by Rover as a potential successor to the Series IIa 109-inch in British military service. Numbers 100/2 and 100/3 underwent military trials with the FVRDE but the vehicle did not go into production. We do not believe the vehicle was built as a gun tractor for the L118 105mm Light Gun, as is commonly reported.

We acquired 100/1 from Land Rover in 1972 where it had been in use as a gang mower, after Tom Barton contacted Brian Bashall and offered it to him for the princely sum of £15. Richard Beddall went to Solihull to collect it and recalls driving it back to Dunsfold leaving a trail of grass clippings in its wake!

Sometime in the late 1970s it was either sold or traded for something else – no-one can remember exactly what happened – and by 1983 it was owned by main dealer M J Fews in Gloucestershire, when it appeared at the famous Eastnor Castle One-Ten launch event. M J Fewsregistered it for road use as Q675 FAD.

We reacquired it in 1990 and restored it. We later discovered from our contacts at Land Rover that it had originally been registered as VXC100F and we successfully applied to have the number restored in 2004.