Filed under: Tuners, SUVs, Land Rover
Title Defender: Land Rover Series I dragster
Click on the image above to view in our gallery
While the little green angel on our right shoulder prompts us to applaud cars that get good fuel economy, the Italian-racing-red devil on the left whispers how cool it is to waste gallons of irreplaceable fossil fuels on things like supercharged Land Rovers. Truth be told, we like giving in to the red one. We just feel guilty about it the next morning. And just in case the force-fed Range Rover Sport from the factory wasn't enough, along comes something that makes us forget all about the letters HSE.
What you see here is a circa-1950's Defender Series I, the original Land Rover that has crossed continents countless times. But in case it didn't get from coast to coast quite fast enough, some blessed soul has dropped in a supercharged Ford V8 kicking out around 800 horsepower. In its current state, though, we doubt it'll be fording any rivers – unless they've already dried up. Check out the images for yourself in the gallery below.
[Source: Chromjuwelen via CarScoop]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Franz 5:43PM (2/12/2008)
LOL. This is just nuts, and ugly as hell. It must've been a fun project to do though. I admire the people who build things like these just for the fun of it.
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k.w.a 5:57PM (2/12/2008)
...well if you can make an SUV out of a race car (Porsche), i supposed you can make a race car out of an SUV. i love it!
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lovice 6:42AM (2/13/2008)
You mean 'race car out of 4*4', right?
Coz Series 1 Land Rover is far from being a SUV.
k.w.a 10:10AM (2/13/2008)
*sigh* sure, lovice. the series I ties to "SUV" just as loosely as a non-racing Porsche would tie to the label "race-car." i think this was just a joke that went over your head
Purifoy 6:23PM (2/12/2008)
What a waste of time and material.
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Dan 6:26PM (2/12/2008)
Someone just killed a great truck.
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Mike 7:37PM (2/12/2008)
When did Autoblog become Autoblog green? This vehicle, like virtually all classic, modified, or non-street legal vehicles will spend very few hours actually burning "irreplaceable" fossil fuels. Supercars (and trucks) are exclusive and generally see very limited use. Their impact on the environment is negligable compared to that of hundreds of other, worse offenders (industry, meat consumption, household electrical use, etc etc etc).
When did car people start sacrificing their desires for performance and styling for fuel efficiency and practicality? Should daily drivers be fuel efficient? Absolutely. But classic, modified, and high performance vehicles are generally not daily drivers.
I read autoblog and other automotive to dream. To see cars which push the limits of style and performance. If such cars are fuel efficient, its a bonus.
Keep autoblog about the cars and please leave the Al Gore guilt trips to the mainstream, non automotive media.
And no, I am not a fan of this Land Rover or trucks in general (LM002 and FX45 as exceptions).
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Graham 8:26PM (2/12/2008)
To correct the article, it's not a 'Defender Series I' it's simply a Series I. Defender name didn't exist until 1990.
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El Norte 8:49PM (2/12/2008)
"When did car people start sacrificing their desires for performance and styling for fuel efficiency and practicality?"
I don't think anyone's objecting to this on the grounds that it's not "green" enough. I think most that object to this thing do so on the grounds that someone took a Series I and destroyed it.
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Mike 8:56PM (2/12/2008)
"I don't think anyone's objecting to this on the grounds that it's not "green" enough. I think most that object to this thing do so on the grounds that someone took a Series I and destroyed it."
I completely agree. My comment wasn't about any of the comments, but rather the wording of the original post.
"While the little green angel on our right shoulder prompts us to applaud cars that get good fuel economy, the Italian-racing-red devil on the left whispers how cool it is to waste gallons of irreplaceable fossil fuels on things like supercharged Land Rovers. Truth be told, we like giving in to the red one. We just feel guilty about it the next morning."
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Mike 8:56PM (2/12/2008)
And without question, I would much rather have an original series 1.
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LoneWolf 1:12AM (2/13/2008)
It looks great. You can't compare this with a original Land Rover, but as a project, it's cool.
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irsa 4:02AM (2/13/2008)
A couple things need to be realised with this. Firstly, the owner didn't cut up a genuine series 1. The chassis is custom built and the I belive most of the body was fabricated as well. Since the series 1 had flat body panels this isn't hard to do. Plus the fact it is possible to build a complete Land Rover from the ground up just using reproduction, or even genuine, spare parts available over the counter means I would be supprised if there is actually any genine Land Rover parts in it.
Oh yeah, the grill panel looks more like a series 2 to me. My family used to own an ex Australian army series 2 FFR(radio truck) which had the exact same panel and wire gril.
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Menice 8:32AM (2/13/2008)
irsa rocks.
and so does this truck.
mike, go read hot rod magazine. stop telling autoblog what to do. maybe go make your own car blog for just you.
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JS 10:19AM (2/13/2008)
This might be the coolest thing I have ever seen on Autoblog in the past 4 years of reading the site. Seriously, this is up there as one of the greatest stories, haha, I love it!
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