2002 Range Rover G4 Challenge

With just four previous keepers, ‘KS52 AOC’ is arguably the best-known – and quite possibly just plain ‘best’ – ex-G4 L322 in the world.

One of only 28 of that model built for the 2003 G4 event in Australia, it became the most photographed Range Rover of the competition; Land Rover's PR hero, it took centre stage in adverts, posters, vinyl banners, and catalogues, all of which form part of the incredible history file that is part ‘n’ parcel of the listing.

And this history file is incredible, comprising memorabilia such as two large boxes of G4 challenge documents and event clothing. There’s also a winching kit and a photo library of hundreds of images in the original G4 competition as well as its subsequent participation in international events.

Of course, all this took its toll but even that’s not a problem because the chap who owned it between 2013 and 2020 was Land Rover Owner magazine’s international editor – and he poured his heart and soul into restoring it.

His work including replacing most of the interior trim, tidying up the coachwork, and sparing no expense in replacing serviceable and age-expired items.

The result was good enough for it to take part in the 2018 Land Rover 70th-anniversary convoy, where it made its way up the famous hill at Goodwood. It was also displayed at the Goodwood Speedweek's Range Rover 50th anniversary. Brilliantly, it also features in Land Rover's Top Trumps' playing cards and the App, and

It’s been in the care of the seller since he bought it four years ago. He’s since invested around £10,000 in maintaining and improving it, which means it’s quite possibly in an even better condition now than it was when he bought it.

And it’s a mark of the man that he laughed when he told us: “I’ve loved spending the money on it. It’s got a soul, and it’s never let me down. I’ve never had a problem in all my miles with it, it’s been absolutely spot-on and has never missed a beat!”

Bought to display events such as Goodwood, “bloody Covid” stymied his plans and it ended up as a daily driver, albeit one that’s only covered around 14,000 miles in four years.

Only for sale because “I’ve got itchy feet and enjoy the hunt as much as I do the ownership”, this is your chance to get your hands on a Range Rover that’s both in a fantastic condition and has an unrivalled pedigree for not much more than he’s spent on maintaining it…

Fun fact: It was recently selected by Top Gear as one of the 10 most interesting Range Rovers ever built:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/10-most-interesting-range-rovers-ever-built#9

The Tangiers Orange paintwork looks fabulous, but then it has been the subject of considerably more pampering than your average L322: At a time when most twenty-two-year-old Range Rovers are staggering from one MoT to another, this one’s been treated to the sort of beauty regimen that would be familiar to the Kardashians.

Subtly refreshed in the hands of the previous keeper by way of some work to the sills, rear door shuts, tailgate and wheelarches, he was fastidious enough to have the whole of the lower half of the vehicle resprayed rather than try and blend new paint with old.

He followed this up by applying new/old stock decals and a Gtechniq ceramic coating – and you’ll be pleased to hear the seller has maintained the Range Rover just as carefully.

It now looks very nearly as impressive as it would have when it was wheeled out for the cameras in Australia; with glossy paintwork, excellent panel alignment, and all the right stickers and goodies, it’s a real eye-catcher.

And what goodies they are: A Warn 9.5Ti winch wound with synthetic rope on the front bumper; a recovery point on the back; light guards at both ends; Mantec underbody protection underneath; and a Safety Devices roof rack and access ladder up top.

The previous seller told us at the time that the roof rack is fitted with the correct lights, and he was at pains to point out how rare these items were and how valuable they are in maintaining its G4 specification.

The (very good) six-spoke, 19-inch alloy wheels are fitted with a new set of matching 255/55R19 Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tyres – and because they were only fitted in May 2023, they’re still almost as good as new.

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.

If you can ignore the developing patina on the roof rack and the winch controls, then there’s nothing for the new owner to do other than to waft around their local ‘hood searching for inferior vehicles to haul out of the snow and apocalyptic floods that will soon become the new normal.

And you’ll do it in considerable comfort – but if you’re expecting International Rescue-level switches and accessories then we’re afraid you’re going to be disappointed because the standard kit is so effective there’s simply no need for anything else bar the plug-in winch controller and a fire extinguisher.

The leather-covered front seats, which are heated and electrically adjustable, are excellent and only the driver’s seat shows a little gentle creasing and moderate softening to its base.

Of course, they both adjust as they should and heat up nicely – and their lofty position allows you to look down on other vehicles both literally and metaphorically.

The rear seats are very good too, and none of them show anything like real wear and tear much less the sort of rips and colour loss you’ll find on lesser examples.

As for the rest of the trim, it’s all very good thanks to careful curation after most of it had been replaced.

Actually, we say ‘most’ but we really mean ‘all’ with the exception of that fitted around the gear lever. Throw in a couple of fussy owners and the result is trim that’s in nigh-on showroom condition.

The door cards are also excellent. As is the headlining, which is taut and clean. The carpets are good too, and they’re protected by some heavy-duty Land Rover-branded rubber mats.

And that care has been maintained over the past four years; it might have been his wife’s daily driver but when a few pixels went missing on the LCD display he asked his garage to get it repaired.

The final bill might have only been £328 but the inconvenience involved in getting what most of us would consider a non-essential job done goes to the heart of how well he’s maintained it.

Which means faults are few. There are some indentation to the leather of the rear seat, a little colour loss to the handle on the driver’s door, and some scuffs to the hard plastic tailgate trim but that’s about it.

The Range Rover’s service history is too fulsome to describe in full detail here, but a flavour can be gained in the following summary:

• 10.05.2011 – service by Paragon Fleet Solutions Ltd
• 08.02.2013 – service by Paragon Fleet Solutions Ltd
• 20.05.2013 – service by Paragon Fleet Solutions Ltd
• 14.08.2013 – diff and transfer gearbox oil changed by Paragon Fleet Solutions Ltd

As you might have guessed, the chap who owned it for this period was Paragon Fleet Solutions’ manager, hence the choice of Paragon to service it, something that would, we assume, have necessitated genuine OE parts.

The service history then carries on in the same comprehensive manner:

• 30.09.2013 – replacement steering rack, new sensor and new power steering pump at Service 4x4
• 03.10.2013 – registration on French plates
• 16.01.2014 – full post-purchase inspection and service at Service 4x4, including the replacement of all filters and all fluid changed including that in the engine, gearbox, transfer box, and front and rear differentials using Land Rover fluids and parts
• 23.12.2015 – annual inspection and service at Service 4x4, including filters and fluid replacements for the engine and front and rear differentials using Land Rover fluids and parts at 79,996 miles
• 11.11.2016 – service, fresh coolant, and Waxoyl treatment by Cam-Tech Land Rover at a cost of £896
• 24.11.2016 – new Land Rover battery at a cost of £165
• 09.03.2017 – a full brake refurbishment plus miscellaneous fettling by Cam-Tech Land Rover at a cost of £1,618
• 19.12.2017 – service by Cam-Tech Land Rover at a cost of £509
• 09.02.2018 – new brake pipes and fluid by Cam-Tech Land Rover at a cost of £561

• 20.12.2018 – fresh transfer gearbox and both differentials filled with fresh oil by Cotswold Motor Services at a cost of £119
• 10.04.2019 – new waterpump by Cotswold Motor Services at a cost of £206

We sold the vehicle in November 2020, at which point the seller picked up the servicing:

• 26.03.2021 – service by Dnb Mechanical Services
• 13.09.2021 – dashboard LCD repaired by Dnb Mechanical Services
• 04.05.2023 – suspension work including a new compressor byDnb Mechanical Services at a cost of just over £1,000
• 01.11.2023 – service by Dnb Mechanical Services plus work to the gearbox and electrical system at a cost of more than £5,000
• 04.03.2024 – service by Dnb Mechanical Services including welding to the offside rear jacking point and an underbody Lanoguard treatment
• 26.06.2024 – new water-cooled alternator by Dnb Mechanical Services

As you can see, all that hard work and investment – and he tells us that there is almost certainly even more as “some invoices have inevitably slipped through – has paid off because the petrol V8 engine starts beautifully, quickly settles into a rock-solid idle, and revs like a dream.

And it does it all without triggering any warning lights on the dashboard.

As we said earlier, the seller has absolutely loved his time with it: “It’s got a soul, and it’s never let me down. I’ve never had a problem in all my miles with it, it’s been absolutely spot-on and has never missed a beat!”

He attributes its 100% reliability to the fastidious servicing regimen he and the previous owners insisted on.

He went on to say that other drivers love it, falling over themselves to let him out of junctions, and to have a natter when he fills the tank. Things like this matter and will make a real difference to how much you enjoy driving it – and if you doubt us, ask the driver of any modern Range Rover or Porsche SUV how they get on in traffic…

One small change he did make was to have the front bumper and winch removed to make it the L322 bit more city friendly. This has since been reinstated, but if you fancy following his lead then the replacement bumper is included in the sale.

The engine bay is as beautifully detailed as the rest of the vehicle and includes a Tangiers Orange engine cover.

NB: The boot contains the luggage guard, the O/E headunit, a reel of Arbil wire winch rope, the winch controller and a webbing tree strop, a spare alloy wheel fitted with a Goodyear mud tyre, the tool kit, and the CD-multichanger and sat-nav DVD player.

The condition of the underbody is pretty darned good for a twenty-two-year-old off-roader with a competition pedigree. In fact, scrub that: It would be pretty darned good if it were on a five-year-old Range Rover.

It helps that it still sports the three-piece Mantec underbody protection kit that Land Rover fitted for the G4 event. This kit is, we recall being told, “as rare as hen’s teeth” since only 28 we made back-in-the-day.

(The roof rack is similarly well-engineered and rare, Safety Devices having made it specially for Land Rover Special Vehicles; it is not the more widely available but similar Land Rover accessory roof rack.)

The Range Rover’s MOT certificate is valid until August 2025. If, like the one in February 2024 (the seller put a new ticket on for the auction) was issued with no advisories.

The history file is voluminous, quite possibly the most comprehensive we’ve ever seen, and includes the usual stuff like some expired MOT certificates and road tax discs plus a sheaf of invoices and bills to confirm the work that has been done to it over the years before straying into more esoteric items such as a G4 certificate of authenticity and Owners’ Club membership card.

It also contains many magazine articles featuring this very example plus others written by its previous owner detailing its maintenance and recommissioning while it was in his care.

Please take the time to go through the 165 photographs that comprise the history file to appreciate just how much time, love, and money has gone into maintaining this exceptional piece of Land Rover history.

One of only 28 ever built, this genuine right-hand-drive G4 Range Rover is almost certainly the very best of its type left.

With an unrivalled provenance supported by an unmatched record of maintenance and restoration, it could be your passport to events like Goodwood as there will be no shortage of people out there keen to have your new classic on their stand.

Or you could do what the seller’s done and simply enjoy one of the most outstanding vehicles ever to have rolled out of Land Rover’s gates.

No matter what direction you choose, you’ll be able to do it for a relatively small sum because the seller is pragmatic enough to acknowledge that his hobby costs money, just like every other.

In this case it might be a hefty hit: Despite investing a solid five-figure sum on top of the hammer price, we estimate it’ll only fetch somewhere between £12,000 and £14,000, which is a pittance considering the fun it’ll unlock.

And if you’re a Land Rover collector then the fact that this is THE G4 L322 to have means you should make an appointment to pop along to see it before bidding starts. We promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Viewing is strongly encouraged, and this lot is located at Bonhams|Cars Online HQ. Viewings are STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT and we are open weekdays between 10am-12pm or 2pm-4pm. To make a booking, please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.