Background
The successor to the successful Series 1 was, you guessed it, the Series 2, which saw a production run from 1958 to 1961. It came in 88-inch and 109-inch wheelbases, normally known as the SWB and LWB. This was the first Land Rover to receive the attention of Land Rover’s styling department.
Chief stylist David Bache produced the familiar ‘barrel side’ waistline, as well as the improved design of the truck cab variant, introducing the curved side windows and rounded roof still used on current Land Rovers.
The Series 2 was the first to use the well-known 2.25-litre petrol engine and this became the standard Land Rover unit until the mid-1980s when diesel engines became more popular.
The Series 2 and 2A are very difficult to distinguish. There were some minor cosmetic changes. Body configurations available from the factory ranged from short-wheelbase soft-top to the top-of-the-line five-door station wagon.
The 2.25-litre diesel engine was added to the engine line, which after 1967 included a 2.6-litre inline six-cylinder engine for long-wheelbase models, which also have servo-assisted brakes.
For February 1969 in the home market, the headlights were moved into the wings on all models and the sill panels were redesigned to be shallower a few months afterwards.
The Series 2A is considered by many to be the most hardy series model constructed. It is quite possibly also the type of classic Land Rover that features strongly in the general public’s perception of the vehicle, from its many appearances in popular films and television documentaries set in Africa such as Born Free.
In February 1968, now under Leyland Motor Corporation ownership, Land Rover celebrated its twentieth birthday, with total production just short of 600,000, of which more than 70% had been exported. Certainly, it was whilst the Series 2A was in production that sales of utility Land Rovers reached their peak. In 1969-70, sales of over 60,000 Land Rovers a year were recorded.
As well as record sales, the Land Rover dominated many world markets. In Australia, in the 1960s, Land Rover held over 90% of the 4x4 market and this figure was repeated in many countries in Africa and the Middle East.
