If you took a line-up of ‘Cars of 1948’ you would find the Citroen 2CV (designed to carry a basket of eggs across a field without breaking any), the Morris Minor (designed to remind people in the UK of their lounge furniture) and the Land Rover Defender (designed to boldly go where Shire horses fear to tread). Who would have thought that 60 years later the 2CV and the Moggie are popular classics, while the Defender has reinvented itself as often as Joan Rivers (and with slightly less plastic surgery)? How long can this carry on or, is it that, like Cliff Richard, the Land Rover is so ingrained in our psyche that there’ll always be a soft spot for it? With cars looking more and more like appliances, with soft curved edges and aerodynamic features, the Landie stands in bold defiance of coefficient of drag. Long may it continue to amaze us with its panel gaps and astound us with its ability to haul through the mud like a randy hippo after a willing mare.

If you took a line-up of ‘Cars of 1948’ you would find the Citroen 2CV (designed to carry a basket of eggs across a field without breaking any), the Morris Minor (designed to remind people in the UK of their lounge furniture) and the Land Rover Defender (designed to boldly go where Shire horses fear to tread). Who would have thought that 60 years later the 2CV and the Moggie are popular classics, while the Defender has reinvented itself as often as Joan Rivers (and with slightly less plastic surgery)? How long can this carry on or, is it that, like Cliff Richard, the Land Rover is so ingrained in our psyche that there’ll always be a soft spot for it? With cars looking more and more like appliances, with soft curved edges and aerodynamic features, the Landie stands in bold defiance of coefficient of drag. Long may it continue to amaze us with its panel gaps and astound us with its ability to haul through the mud like a randy hippo after a willing mare.