VELAR Prototype – hand built and used for various pre-production test procedures, 26 prototype vehicles pre-date the June 1970 launch of the Range Rover.
A good number of these original Velars still exist, and are well documented in the publication 'Range Rover The First Fifty'. Fitted with aluminium bonnets and untextured dashboards, they embody the original purity of this ground breaking vehicle.
Chassis number 10 was used by the factory as a test mule for winch fitments, and later as the prototype for a long wheel base project. For many years it was used as the works ambulance at Lode Lane and at Land Rover’s testing facility. We stripped it down to bare chassis, and with the aid of a jig restored it back to its original 100-inch wheelbase. It is certainly one of the most original of all existing VELARs, and our sympathetic and highly detailed restoration ensured that it has been returned as closely as possible to the specification to which it was built in 1969/70, with matching numbered engine, axles and original chassis, aluminium bonnet and smooth dashboard.
