Land Rover Discovery 1

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This Land Rover Discovery 1 is a rare 3-door, 3.9i V8 manual example, it was originally supplied to Saudi Arabia and is very well-travelled - as any good Land Rover should be - journeying through many countries since. This car is an anomaly in the UK being totally rust-free and highly original, having never been subjected to a welder in its 28-year life and never heavily modified. The front-end has been back-dated to the more attractive pre-facelift model at some point, and the car has the desirable expedition roof-rack, ladder and snorkel fitted along with 6x original Dunlop steel wheels. We have travelled nearly 2,000 miles in the Disco since taking it in P/X last Spring, the majority of which was over the summer months. It has performed faultlessly on many road trips with us and is ready for some more adventures; it will come with a fresh MOT for the new owner.

The story goes that the Dammam police force ordered a fleet of brand new, Chawton White Land Rover Discovery V8s in late 1997 through local dealer Al Saif Motors. However, at the time of delivery, it came to light that someone had made a bit of a mistake… they were all 3-doors. They never saw service in the police force and were quickly sold off to private owners before the new batch of 5-doors arrived. Happily for us, this means the car never met the fate of the majority of police cars and was well-preserved, travelling approx 84,000km (50k miles) in the first 7 years of its life, with 5 stamps from Al Saif Motors in the service book and a large number of handwritten service records from the original owner. Judging from the history file, we can see that the original owner was a British man living and working in Dhahran, the car remained in this area and likely the same owner (judging by the next sales receipt) for over 20 years, before being bought by a member of the British military and personally shipped back to the UK in 2018.

The car was registered in the UK as R311 ABT in January 2019 and remained in single ownership for 3.5 years, travelling over 30k miles, before being bought by our customer in late 2022. The original gauges in KM/H were changed for an MPH set at 145,660km (original set is included), however the mileage was set to the same number as the KMs travelled as to not mess with the history. If we take this into account, the total miles travelled is 131,000. Having lived in a desert climate for over 20 years, the Disco is totally rust-free and has never been welded. Unfortunately, this also comes with some downsides, such as the tatty, sun-beaten Chawton White paint - which we think suits the adventurer aesthetic - some of the interior plastics being brittle/cracked, and the standard saggy headlining being in full effect. However, knowing that thousands of UK-market Discoveries have been written off due to rust, we think these issues are a small price to pay, and relatively easy for the next owner to sort. We have coated the underside in Dinitrol to further protect it from the UK climate and were amazed at just how good and original it is under there, including the precious brake and fuel lines. This Discovery simply cannot be compared to UK-market examples, the majority of which will have previous MOT fails for rust, dodgy welding repairs and ongoing, hidden rot problems. 

Mechanically, the car has been very strong since we purchased it and it has taken us all over the country without fault. The 3.9i V8 starts up without hesitation and is a joy to use, making the driving experience a lot more interesting, smoother (and a lot less smelly) than the 200 & 300 TDi variants. The only thing we have noticed is that the clutch makes a whirring noise every now and then, however, it has done this since we bought the car and it hasn’t developed into anything worse over 2,000 miles of use. We have had five of the six original Dunlop steel wheels refurbished in silver and fitted them with new Michelin O/R XZL tyres for that period ‘Camel Trophy’ look. Electrically, everything on the car functions as it should. Unfortunately, the air-conditioning doesn’t blow cold, but we haven’t looked into this as driving with the windows down is a big part of the V8 Land Rover experience. It could be something as simple as a re-gas as the car did stand for a while before we purchased it. 

Overall, this Discovery 1 is a rare opportunity to purchase a rust-free and highly original car with the amount of character you’d normally attribute to earlier Land Rovers and Camel Trophy cars. We feel as though this would be a fantastically usable, stress-free (and much cheaper) alternative to a classic Range Rover. The car will come with a fresh MOT for its next owner, it is currently based at our studio in Bicester. Please contact Greg with any questions, or to arrange a viewing.