Land Rover invited a bunch of people close to the brand to build the 2,000,000th Series Land Rover/Defender at the Solihull factory. This special one-off will be auctioned by Bonhams for charity.
The classic Land Rover’s production is supposed to come to end later this year due to the 68-year-old platform not being able to comply with upcoming crash standards. As you know, a steel chassis with an aluminum body on top is not exactly like a unibody space frame.
That’s also the reason why Defender sales are up now as customers rush to the dealerships to secure one of the last classic Land Rovers before we all become sad pandas who can’t buy new Defenders anymore. The 2,000,000th car was built in May and will appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend before getting auctioned for charity on the 16th of December. Lots of famous folks, including adventurer Bear Grylls, showed up to help put it together.
The one-off is a satin silver Defender 90 with black accessories packing a bunch of neat design touches here and there. The map of Red Wharf Bay is engraved into the aluminum fender, there’s a ‘no 2,000,000’ badge on the rear of the vehicle as well as on the interior console.
Inside, the leather seats also feature “Red Wharf Bay” and “no. 2,000,000” stitching on the headrests. The highest bidder also end up with an aluminum plaque signed by everyone who helped to assemble the vehicle, plus the S90 HUE registration plates, which are a reference to the first ever pre-production Land Rover, registration “HUE 166.”
The funds raised in December by Bonhams will be donated to International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Born Free Foundation.
It’s a win-win!
I want to drive this to Red Wharf Bay to mess up the sand at the beach right now.
Contact the author at mate@jalopnik.com.