Michael Riley's Blog: Hemmings Find of the Day

Friday, April 15, 2016

Hemmings Find of the Day – 1973 Land Rover 109

To the best of our knowledge, there’s no kit form of old Land Rovers like there is for, say, the Lotus 7. This pieced-together-from-NOS-parts 1973 Land Rover 109 for sale on Hemmings.com, thus, comes closest to a Landie kit, with all of the engineering for the V-8 swap already done. Most of the parts even come with it, though unlike a kit car, many of them are gonna need refurbishing before install. From the seller’s description:

The previous owner of this vehicle was a master fabricator of more then 20 years experience in mechanics and custom fabrication, with extensive experience working with series Land Rovers. The idea behind the project was to build the perfect Series 109 Land Rover, a vehicle that would, among other things, be capable of comfortably maintaining long stretches at highway speeds (without putting undue stress on a stock series drive train), have a completely new old stock rust-free frame and bulkhead, have an improved cabin heating system etc. all without messing with the traditional Rover look and feel.

To accomplish this a new old stock (NOS) 101 Ministry of Defence (MOD) rebuild 3.5L 101 V8 engine was laboriously custom fitted into a NOS military spec 109 series pickup rolling chassis with salisbury rear axle. A LT77 Rover 5 speed transmission was then custom fit to the engine. Once mated with a Rover series III transfer case and mod kit (not included in this listing) this Rover 5 speed overdrive arrangement furnishes the driver with 2 wheel drive, 4 wheel drive, and 4 wheel drive low range capabilities. The stock 101 engine produces 120 HP @ 5000 RPM and 176 foot LBS @ 2500RPM. Ultimately this means that no masts, sails, or hurricane force following winds are required to travel at highway speeds!

I love this vehicle, but not unlike the original owner I have lost the time and the space to make it come together. All the significant quirks of this conversion have been worked out (This means no unpleasant head scratching!) what remains is a really wonderful, capable off-road/working truck that is ready for the right person to give it the final bit of attention it needs to fulfill it’s rightfully position as the perfect Series 109 Land Rover. I’m sorry that it worked out that I wasn’t the person to make that happen.

This auction does *not* include the 3rd salisbury rear axle visible sitting on top of the frame in some photographs, also the rims included in this listing are not the ones shown in the photographs. All other Land Rover parts visible in the photographs are included.