Description

1970 Land Rover SIIa 88" Diesel

Commendably sound and straight example; working overdrive; excellent canvas tilt; dependable workhorse that will outlive all of us!

The successor to the successful Series One Land Rover was the Series Two, which remained in production from 1958 to 1961. It came in 88-inch and 109-inch wheelbases (normally referred to as the 'SWB' and 'LWB').
This was the first Land Rover to adopt a relatively modern shape, and used the well-known 2.25 litre petrol engine, although early SWB models retained the 2.0 litre petrol engine from the Series I for the first 1,500 or so vehicles. This larger petrol engine produced 72bhp and was closely related to the 2.0 litre diesel unit still in use. This engine became the standard Land Rover unit until the mid-1980s when diesel engines became more popular.
The Series 2A replaced the S2 in 1961 and remained in production for 10 years. There were some minor cosmetic changes, but the most significant change was under the bonnet in the guise of the new 2.25 litre diesel engine. Body configurations ranged from SWB soft top to the top of the line five-door Station Wagon. From February 1969 the headlamps moved into the wings on all models, and the sill panels were redesigned to be shallower a few months afterwards.
First registered in January 1970, this SWB 88" has the 2.25 diesel engine with manual overdrive transmission. It is showing 50,143 miles on the clock although whether this is correct or not is difficult to say. It certainly looks to be remarkably straight and solid with none of the dents and battle scars that these workhorses usually pick up over the years.
Twelve old MOTs show that it has certainly been only lightly used for the last 26 years at least, showing 30,486 miles in 1995 and 49,465 miles in 2012 when it appears to have been put into storage. It was next MOT tested in 2017 and has only covered some 650 miles since, being put on SORN in October last year. There is one invoice on file for a service, checkover and grease-up back in March 2009. The canvas tilt is in excellent shape and must have been renewed very recently while the overdrive works as it should.
Starting promptly and running well as we have moved it around on site, it doubtless has at least another 50 years of useful working life ahead of it.
For more information contact James on 07970 309907 or email james.dennison@brightwells.com