New Bikes of Land Rover

History
The design for the original Land Rover vehicle was started in 1947 by Maurice Wilks, chief designer at the Rover Company, on his farm in Newborough, Anglesey.[11] It is said that he was inspired by an American World War II Jeep that he used one summer at his holiday home in Wales.[12][13] The first Land Rover prototype, later nicknamed 'Centre Steer', was built on a Jeep chassis and axles.

The early choice of colour was dictated by military surplus supplies of aircraft cockpit paint, so early vehicles only came in various shades of light green; all models until recently feature sturdy box section ladder-frame chassis.

The early vehicles, such as the Series I, were field-tested at Long Bennington and designed to be field-serviced; advertisements for Rovers cite vehicles driven thousands of miles on banana oil. Now with more complex service requirements this is less of an option. The British Army maintains the use of the mechanically simple 2.5-litre four-cylinder 300TDi-engined versions rather than the electronically controlled 2.5-litre five-cylinder TD5 to retain some servicing simplicity. This engine also continued in use in some export markets using units built at a Ford plant in Brazil, where Land Rovers were built under licence and the engine was also used in Ford pick-up trucks built locally. Production of the TDi engine ended in the United Kingdom in 2006, meaning that Land Rover no longer offers it as an option. International Motors of Brazil offer an engine called the 2.8 TGV Power Torque, which is essentially a 2.8-litre version of the 300TDi, with a corresponding increase in power and torque.

During its ownership by Ford, Land Rover was once again associated with Jaguar – the first time the two companies had been under the same ownership since the British Leyland era. In many countries they shared a common sales and distribution network (including shared dealerships), and some models shared components and production facilities.

Sale to Tata
In June 2007, Ford Motor Company announced its plan to sell Land Rover, along with Jaguar. Ford retained the services of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to advise it on the details of the deal. The buyer was initially expected to be announced by September 2007, but the sale was delayed and an announcement was not made until March 2008. A UK-based private equity firm, Alchemy Partners, and the India-headquartered Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra expressed interest in purchasing Jaguar and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company.

Before the sale was announced, Anthony Bamford, chairman of British excavators manufacturer JCB, had expressed interest in purchasing Jaguar Cars in August, the year previously; only to back out when told the sale would also involve Land Rover, which he did not wish to buy.Tata Motors received endorsements from the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU)-Amicus combine and Ford as a preferred bidder.

In March 2008, Ford announced that it had agreed to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors, and that the sale was expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008.On 2 June 2008, the sale to Tata Motors was completed by both parties.Included in the deal were the rights to three other British brands: Jaguar's own Daimler marque, as well as two dormant brands Lanchester and Rover.BMW and Ford had previously retained ownership of the Rover brand to protect the integrity of the Land Rover brand, with which 'Rover' might be confused in the US 4x4 market; the Rover brand was originally used under licence by MG Rover until it collapsed in 2005, at which point it was re-acquired by the then Ford Motor Company owned Land Rover Limited.

As of August 2012, most Land Rovers in production are powered by Ford engines.Under the terms of the acquisition, Tata has the right to buy engines from Ford until 2019.In 2011, Tata confirmed plans that it is investing $559 million to build an engine assembly plant in the British West Midlands. However, it was only stated that the plant will produce four-cylinder engines. The eight-cylinder engines used in Land Rovers were not mentioned.

Timeline

• 1947: Rover's chief designer Maurice Wilks and his associates create a prototype using Jeep chassis and components
• 1948: The first Land Rover was officially launched 30 April 1948, at the Amsterdam Motor Show
• 1958: Series II launched
• 1961: Series IIA began production
• 1967: Rover becomes part of Leyland Motors Ltd, later British Leyland (BL) as Rover Triumph
• 1970: Introduction of the Range Rover
• 1971: Series III launched
• 1975: BL collapses and is nationalised, publication of the Ryder Report recommends that Land Rover be split from Rover and be treated as a separate company within BL and becomes part of the new commercial vehicle division called the Land Rover Leyland Group
• 1976: One-millionth Land Rover leaves the production line
• 1978: Land Rover Limited formed as a separate subsidiary of British Leyland
• 1980: Rover car production ends at Solihull with the transfer of SD1 production to Cowley, Oxford; Solihull is now exclusively for Land Rover manufacture. 5-door Range Rover introduced.
• 1983: Land Rover 90 (Ninety)/110 (One-Ten)/127 (renamed Defender in 1990) introduced
• 1986: BL plc becomes Rover Group plc; Project Llama started
• 1986: Range Rover is introduced to the U.S market in April 1986
• 1988: Rover Group is privatised and becomes part of British Aerospace, and is now known simply as Rover
• 1989: Introduction of Discovery
• 1994: Rover Group is taken over by BMW. Introduction of second-generation Range Rover. (The original Range Rover was continued under the name 'Range Rover Classic' until 1995)
• 1997: Land Rover introduces the Special Edition Discovery XD with AA Yellow paint, subdued wheels, SD type roof racks, and a few other off-road upgrades directly from the factory. Produced only for the North American market, the Special Vehicles Division of Land Rover created only 250 of these bright yellow SUV's.
• 1997: Introduction of Freelander
• 1998: Introduction of second generation of Discovery
• 2000: BMW breaks up the Rover Group and sells Land Rover to Ford for £1.8 billion
• 2002: Introduction of third-generation Range Rover
• 2004: Introduction of third-generation Discovery/LR3
• 2005: Introduction of Range Rover Sport
• 2005: Adoption of Jaguar AJ-V8 engine to replace the BMW M62 V8 in the Range Rover
• 2005: Land Rover 'founder' Rover, collapses under the ownership of MG Rover Group
• 2006: Announcement of a new 2.4-litre diesel engine, 6-speed gearbox, dash and forward-facing rear seats for Defender. Introduction of second generation of Freelander (Freelander 2). Ford acquires the Rover trademark from BMW, who previously licensed its use to MG Rover Group
• 8 May 2007: 4,000,000th Land Rover rolls off the production line, a Discovery 3 (LR3), donated to The Born Free Foundation
• 12 June 2007: Announcement from the Ford Motor Company that it plans to sell Land Rover and also Jaguar Cars
• August 2007: India's Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra as well as financial sponsors Cerberus Capital Management, TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management expressed their interest in purchasing Jaguar Cars and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company.
• 26 March 2008: Ford agreed to sell their Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors.
• 2 June 2008: Tata Motors finalised their purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.
• 2010: Introduction of fourth-generation Discovery/LR4
• 2011: The Range Rover Evoque introduced
• 2012: Fourth-generation Range Rover was exhibited at the 2012 Paris Motor Show
• 2014: The New Discovery Range exhibited at the 2014 New York Motor show

Manufacturing
Land Rovers were manufactured primarily at the Solihull plant, near Birmingham, but production of the Freelander was moved to the Halewood Body & Assembly plant near Liverpool, a former Ford car plant. The Freelander is also assembled in knock-down kit (CKD) form at Land Rover's facility in Pune, India.[30] Defender models are assembled under licence in several locations worldwide, including Spain (Santana Motors), Iran (Pazhan Morattab), Brazil (Karmann) and Turkey (Otokar).[31] The former BL/Rover Group technical centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire is home to the corporate and R&D headquarters.

In May 2010, Tata Motors announced that it plans to build Land Rover and Jaguar models in Mainland China (PRC) as the company seeks to cut costs and expand sales.[32] Currently Tata Motors are working on having all aluminium body constructions on all Land Rover vehicles. The Defender replacement is due for 2015, that too is expected to have an aluminium body, but it may be based off the Discovery Platforms.

Concepts
Range Stormer – Land Rover's first concept vehicle, unveiled at the 2004 North American International Auto Show, later became the Range Rover Sport.(Gritzinger, 2004).

Land Rover LRX – Land Rover's second concept vehicle, first unveiled at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. Originally a vehicle with ERAD technology, the production version did not include this. The car was then launched in 2011 as the Range Rover Evoque, and was the first Range Rover branded product to be offered with front wheel drive, and no low ratio transfer box.

Land Rover DC100 – Land Rover's third concept vehicle, first unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, designed to be a replacement for the Land Rover Defender, though it is unlikely that the Defender's replacement will be exactly the same as the DC100 concept.

Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept – Land Rover's fourth concept vehicle, first unveiled at the 2014, was designed to be a replacement for the Land Rover Discovery models, This concept features Transparent Bonnet, Suicide doors, and Laser assisted lamps (there is a very little chance this will be included in any future production vehicles).

Engines
Main article: Land Rover engines
During the history of the Land Rover many different engines have been fitted:

• The inlet-over-exhaust petrol engines ("semi side-valve"), in both four- and six-cylinder variants, which were used for the very first Land Rovers in 1948, and which had their origins in pre-war Rover cars. Displacement of the first models was 1,600 cc.
• The four-cylinder overhead-valve engines, both petrol and diesel, which first appeared (in diesel form) in 1957, near the end of Series One production, and evolved over the years to the 300 TDi turbodiesel, which remains in production today for some overseas markets.
• The Buick-sourced all aluminium Rover V8 engine.
• 1,997 cc Petrol, inlet-over-exhaust: Series I engine, carried over for the first few months of Series II production.
• 2,052 cc Diesel, overhead-valve: Land Rover's first diesel engine, and one of the first small high-speed diesels produced in the UK. It appeared in 1957, and was used in Series II production until 1961. Looks almost identical to the later 2,286 cc engine, but many internal differences. It produced 51 bhp (38 kW).
• 2,286 cc Petrol, overhead-valve, three-bearing crank:
• 2,286 cc Diesel, overhead-valve, three-bearing crank: Appeared in 1961 alongside the redesigned 2,286 cc petrol engine at the start of Series IIA production, and shared its cylinder block and some other components. It produced 62 bhp (46 kW).
• 2,625 cc Petrol, inlet-over-exhaust: Borrowed from the Rover saloon range, in response to demands from mid-1960s Land Rover users for more power and torque.
• 2,286 cc petrol/diesel, overhead-valve type 11J: five-bearing crank: In 1980, Land Rover finally did something about the crank failures which had plagued its four-cylinder engines for 22 years.[citation needed] These engines lasted beyond the end of Series III production and into the first couple of years of the new Ninety and One Ten ranges.
• 3,258 cc V8 Petrol: The ex-Buick all alloy V8 engine appeared in the Range Rover right from the start of production in 1970, but did not make its way into the company's utility vehicles until 1979.
• 2,495 cc petrol, overhead valve: The final development of Land Rover's ohv petrol 'four', with hardened valve seats which allow running on unleaded (or LPG).
• 2,495 cc diesel, overhead valve, type 12J: Land Rover reworked the old 'two and a quarter' diesel for the 1980s. The injection pump was driven off a toothed belt at the front of the engine (together with the camshaft), a change compared with the older diesels.
• 2,495 cc turbodiesel, overhead valve, type 19J
• 2,495 cc turbodiesel, overhead valve, 200TDi and 300TDi: Used in the Defender and Discovery from 1990. The cylinder block was similar to the previous engine, although strengthened but the cylinder head was all-new and a direct injection fuel system was used.
• 2,495 cc turbodiesel, five-cylinder, TD5: An all-new engine for the second generation Discovery, and the Defender featuring electronic control of the fuel injection system, 'drive by wire' throttle, and other refinements
• The original Freelander models were available with various Rover K-series engines.