Royal Mail Series IIA 88 hardtop.

The General Post Office and its successors bought Land Rovers from the Series I onward, starting around 1950, and the marque became the Post Office's vehicle of choice for regular mail deliveries in the remoter parts of the United Kingdom — as well as serving as rural postbuses, Post Office Telephones vehicles and, toward the end of their postal lives, fleet recovery trucks. The short-wheelbase hardtop in the corporate red livery with gold lettering, its windscreen shaded by a distinctive 'eyebrow' visor, is the classic form; Oxford Diecast and the Postal Museum both commemorate a Series IIA hardtop of this pattern in Post Office recovery colours.

The Land Rover Heritage Collection's example is a 1967 Series IIA 88-inch hardtop, chassis 24131072D, powered by the standard 2.25-litre (2,286 cc) diesel four. It was discovered in Italy, where a noted Italian Land Rover enthusiast carried out most of its restoration into vibrant Post Office livery with period-correct sign writing, before being acquired by JLR Classics and returned to the UK. Because of DVLA rules on re-imported vehicles it carries dual registrations — PKH 495F alongside its original working plate OYB 754F — and it now earns its keep on corporate hire, photoshoots and exhibitions.