First-ever Range Rover worth at least twice the price of a new model

By Ronan Glon August 17, 2014

The first-ever Land Rover Range Rover will be auctioned off by Silverstone Auctions at the Salon Privé Sale that will take place in London, England, on September 4th of this year.

Built in December of 1969, Range Rover chassis number 001 was initially used as a test vehicle by Land Rover engineers as they fine-tuned the off-roader ahead of its scheduled launch. Once the Range Rover was presented to members of the media, 001 joined Land Rover’s press fleet and stayed there until it was sold to a private party in 1971.

Chassis number 001 became a standard, two-door Range with no historical significance after it left the press fleet because it was painted Sahara Gold and it lost its original registration number. It was used as a work truck by a series of owners over the course of the 1970s, and it was presumably quite rough by the time the 1990s rolled around. The current owner tracked it down, verified its VIN number and proceed to give it a six-year long ground-up restoration. The truck was repainted in its original shade of Olive Green and re-united with its first registration number.

RELATED: Land Rover’s LR2 replacement takes shape.

The auction description states the Range Rover is still equipped with its original 3.5-liter V8 engine, its original four-speed manual transmission, its original chassis and its aluminum hood, a feature that was only found on the earliest Range Rovers. The odometer reads 86,950 miles but the truck looks to be in like-new condition.

Silverstone Auctions estimates chassis number 001 will sell for anywhere between £100,000 and £140,000 (roughly $168,000 and $235,000), about twice the price of a 2015 base-model Range Rover and considerably more than the standard market value of an early two-door Range Rover.

Stay tuned to Digital Trends for a post-auction update.

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Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…

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