Range Rover Chassis #001 to be auctioned at The Salon Privé sale by Silverstone Auctions on 4th September
Today, Range Rovers are the favourite vehicles of everyone ranging from the Queen to Kim Kardashian but the first Range Rover produced was a far more simple vehicle. It is to be auctioned at The Salon Privé sale by Silverstone Auctions on the 4th September.
Marketed with an extraordinary guide price of £100,000 to £140,000 against a price of £1,998 in the year it was launched (the equivalent of £26,969 today), Chassis #001 was built between 24th November and 17th December 1969 and finished in olive green. It was registered on the 2nd January 1970 with the number plate YVP 151H just six months before the vehicle’s official launch date.
The car’s first owner was the British film producer Michael Furlong – who bought it on 8th April 1971 and made the first two promotional videos for the Range Rover (“A car for all reasons” and “Sahara South”) – and then in 1975 it was resprayed in Bahama gold and sold on to a Mr W. G. Ansell of Belvedere, London.
With its change in colour and registration, Chassis #001 was lost for a number of years and ended up owned by a farmer in Kent. The current owner discovered the vehicle, purchased it and embarked on a six year restoration of the car in the early 1990s. In 1997, he was able to give the vehicle back its original number plate after the DVLA agreed to reissue YVP 151H to the car.
Range Rover Chassis #001 has a warranted 86,950 miles on the clock and is marketed by Silverstone Auctions at “what [they] strongly believe is an attractive guide price”.
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