Range Rover number one to be auctioned at Salon Privé

The very first Range Rover to roll off the Solihull production line could fetch up to £140,000 when it goes under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions’ Salon Privé Sale on Thursday, 4 September.

When it was launched, the Range Rover created a whole new market sector, and this is a chance for someone to own the car that started it all – chassis number one.

Originally planned as a post-war stopgap, buyers couldn’t wait to get their hands on Rover’s civilised off-roader. This car, built between 24 November and 17 December 1969, was registered on 2 January 1970 – nearly six months before the car officially went on sale.

First owned by Michael Furlong, who produced two short promotional films about the Range Rover, it was thought the vehicle had been lost until it was discovered in the early Nineties.

The subject of a six-year restoration, chassis number one has been returned to its original Olive Green colour and retains all its ‘matching number’ components – chassis, engine, gearbox and axles, plus the original aluminium bonnet and original bodyshell. In 1997, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency reissued it with its original registration number – YVB 151H.