1981 Range Rover 2-Door

Finished in Masai Red with a Palomino Vinyl interior, this delightfully presented Range Rover Classic is the sought-after two door model. First registered on the 23rd of January 1981, it is fitted with a £10k 3.9-litre J.E.

Engineering engine and Fairey overdrive in addition to receiving a mini-bodywork restoration in 2018, so it goes every bit as well as it looks.

With 124 pages of documents, it’s been well curated and had been in the owner’s care since 2016. Still showing just 66,482 miles, this wonderful example of classic British engineering is being offered with no reserve, so will sell from the very first bid.

The bodywork was refreshed by well-known Land Rover specialists Gumtree 4x4 in 2018. Slide numbers 297-301 show what was done but the work included new sills plus work to the floorpans, door pillars, inner wings, headlamp bowls, and body mounts to eradicate rust.

As you can see, the work was carried out to Gumtree’s usual high standards (as well it might given the size of the bill) and the whole lot is protected by a professional Waxoyl treatment.

The emphasis has clearly been on preservation rather than restoration, so the paint bears witness to the vehicle’s long life and some apparent contamination in the finish, but a full respray would bring it back to showroom condition for those of you who prefer the finish unsullied and perfect but many will enjoy the patina it wears so proudly. While we understand the desire of enthusiasts to restore everything to concours condition, conservation like this is a growing trend and one we heartily endorse.

Other features we admire on older Range Rovers are the vertical door handles, the exposed fuel filler and cap, and the fold-down tailgate. All reek of a gentler time when luxury was built in and not something a marketing team sketched in at the last minute.

Vis-à-vis the 16-inch Rostyle wheels. Steel rather than alloy, all four are in good shape and are clothed with matching 205 R16 Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tyres.

As we will never tire of explaining, our experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly. Their presence does not, of course, preclude the need for a thorough inspection - something the vendor would welcome, by the way – but it does perhaps give you a shortcut into their attitude towards maintenance.

Aside from the usual stone chips and minor marks, the windscreen rubber could do with being replaced (#98 and #134), there’s some rust on the frame of the offside front quarterlight (#105), some bubbling to the lower edge of some panels (#108, #235, #236, #237) and around the offside front indicator repeater (#227), plus some cracking to the paintwork around the wiper spindles (#151).

The optional and rare Palomino Vinyl interior makes a refreshing change from the leather everyone thinks they want. It’s in great shape thanks to the ministrations of a previous owner. The seats are still generally comfortable and supportive, but the drivers seat might benefit from a new foam squab or replaced webbing.

The door cards sport the unusual double door release handle arrangement that’s a distinctive feature of the two-door models. It’s a bold design and works very well, allowing rear seat passengers to open the door easily from behind.

The wand-like gear lever stirs a four-speed manual gearbox (plus overdrive), which makes a change from the more usual automatic gearbox and gives the driver complete control over gear selection, which is as vital when navigating the urban landscape as it is during a river crossing in the jungle.

(Note the presence of the two levers to engage and disengage the overdrive unit and low-range gearbox. This is a resolutely analogue vehicle, and all the better for being so.)

The spindly four-spoke steering wheel is present and correct too, as is an Alba twin-spindle radio to the driver’s right. This is the original position for the unit and it’s great to see it still there.

The boot is in good shape too. Just take a look at the handle to fold down the rear seat for example, or the tool kit and warning sticker, or the vertical spare wheel. The steel tailgate and floor both look solid, too. It’s a lovely place and the lucky new owner will undoubtedly spend a lot of time sitting on the tailgate, munching sandwiches and congratulating themselves on their good fortune.

The front carpets are in a fair condition. Still highly usable, we can see the Range Rover’s new owner might like to budget for replacements in the medium-term. (And yes, a surprisingly wide range of interior trim is still available, even for earlier models like this.)

Other work to do – and all of this is strictly nit-picking – includes sorting out the instrument binnacle (#69) and the B-pillar trims (#185).

The 3.9-litre J.E. Engineering engine was fitted in April 2021, so is barely run in yet. Considerably more powerful than the stock unit, the new engine pushes out almost 198bhp and 242lb/ft of torque. Please see the attached paperwork for the full details of what was done to upgrade it but the changes were considerable – and the whole lot was fitted by well-known Land Rover specialists Gumtree 4x4.

A Fairey overdrive was fitted in 2013 by Strathearn Engineering, so the fuel consumption is likely to be as good as you could hope for given the car’s performance.

The engine bay is very tidy; just take a look at the neatly labelled HT leads for example; it’s little things like this that distinguish a well fettled car from the rest. If it were ours then we’d be sorely tempted to paint the slam panel and replace the underbonnet sound deadening to bring them up to the same standard as the rest of the vehicle.

We’d also want to wire brush the underside before rust-proofing it as the surface rust that’s there lets down an otherwise impressively presented vehicle.

The Range Rover has been eligible for classification as an Historic Vehicle since April 2022. It doesn’t have a current MOT, the last one having expired in 2021. Despite that, we would strongly encourage the new owner to have it MOT’d at the earliest. The cost of an MOT is a small investment when offset against the purchase and upkeep of any classic vehicle, and it gives an independent, third-party assessment of the vehicle's condition, which not only provides reassurance to the owner (and any subsequent purchasers) but might also be invaluable in the event of a bump when negotiating with the police and any interested insurance companies…

As mentioned, the last one only expired in January 2021, so that’s worth something. It also comes with a vast array of expired MOT certificates and tax discs (remember those?) in addition to a good number of old invoices and bills.

It also has the original ‘Passport to Service’ booklet with stamps up to 29,888 miles, and the recent Vehicle History Check shows nothing of note.

The Range Rover Classic’s renaissance has stuttered somewhat in the past couple of years; after a period in which the model was achieving what were frankly silly prices, their values have stabilized. For the time being, anyway.

This means that potential owners can now find some very good examples for a lot less than would have been the case a few years ago, examples that have had considerable sums spent on them during the heady years when it looked like the stratospheric rise in values would continue forever.

Examples like this very desirable three-door, which we think will fetch between £15,000 and £20,000, small change for a car that is utterly solid and in need of only cosmetic titivating to enable it to fulfil its full potential.

And what will it be worth after investing a few thousand pounds? Well, while that depends on the quality and extent of the work, we’ve seen some very nice restored examples fetching north of £50,000…

Even better, it’s being offered with no reserve, so why not have a cheeky flutter and see what happens?

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; we are open weekdays 9am-5pm, to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.