The record
At the end of the 1950s Rover wanted a heavier Land Rover: a 30 cwt truck for civil and military users, and specifically one that could challenge the Dodge Power Wagon as the standard transport of the Middle East oilfields. Between 1959 and 1963 it built six prototypes on a 129-inch wheelbase, tall on big tyres, with the familiar Series cab and a separate load body. The project did not reach production — the Forward Control took the heavy-duty role instead — but the sixth-built vehicles were used for trials and as demonstrators for years.
Chassis 129/5, 'Lofty', was the military demonstrator: a 2.5-litre diesel with a CAV turbocharger and intercooler driving through a four-speed gearbox, and a dropside rear body with a canvas tilt. It went through military trials at FVRDE Chobham, returned to Solihull, and was then passed to CAV at Acton, west London, as a works vehicle, gaining its registration FYF 928C in June 1965. Brian Bashall bought it from CAV in 1968, one of the first vehicles in what became the Dunsfold Collection, which keeps it in the grey with a white cab roof the photograph shows — the tilt now off, the aluminium dropside bed bare.
