IN SEARCH OF A CLASSIC

To toast 25 years of Land Rover launching in North America this month, we simply had to have an original 1987 model to display on our New York Auto Show stand. Finding one was the challenge, writes Bob Burns, Events Manager, Land Rover North America.

You might think it would have been an easy task. After all, in the first year the Range Rover went on sale in the U.S., we sold 1,508 of the 1987 model-year versions.

But we decided early on that rather than borrow a car from an owner, it would be worth Land Rover North America buying one and adding it to our heritage fleet.

And of course it had to be white, just like the car we featured in our original U.S. advertising. 

I guess I started looking this past winter when I put the word out to our Land Rover Experience instructors, our retailers and the independent Land Rover specialists. While I got a few leads, sadly most of the cars just didn’t fit the bill.

Luckily Product Manager Skip Pavlik found an online ad that tipped us off to a vehicle destined for RMR 4X4 in Birmingham, Alabama.

It had been bought new in March 1987 by a gentleman in Atherton, California who kept it in an aircraft hangar for most of its life. He still had the original bill of sale from the old San Francisco Autocenter, along with the original Monroney window sticker, two copies of the original brochure and even a request to take part in one of our original driving schools. I bought it sight unseen.

I’m an enormous fan of these classic Range Rovers. I joined Land Rover North America on November 1, 1986 right at the very beginning, and I can count on one hand the times I haven’t owned one. I sold my ’91 just last summer.

Within just a couple of miles of driving our new '87 Range Rover, I knew this was a great find. It has less than 100,000 miles on the clock - nothing for an early Range Rover - and it still felt tight and responsive. It was an absolute delight to drive.

Before then, it will take its place on Land Rover’s stand during the press (April 4-5) and public (6-15) days for this year’s New York International Auto Show. If you’re there, go and take a look.

What’s so amazing about these late-’80s Range Rovers is how fresh and modern their design still looks, even parked next to one of our 2012 models. What other 25-year-old vehicle can you say that about?

I was so enamored by our “new” ’87 that I decided, the following weekend of purchasing the car, to make a new purchase of my own. I bought another 91', in white of course, to add to my collection – the perfect 25^th anniversary gift if I do say so myself.