Even today, Range Rover illustrates this model in its advertisements to help promote its latest version of the brand. It is also the only 4 × 4 to be displayed in the Louvre. This tells you all you need to know about the original Range Rover: it is a design icon.

Under the Rover leadership of Spen King, this revered model was announced in 1970 and described as ‘A Car For All Reasons’. It is a truly ‘go anywhere’ vehicle for its all-terrain capabilities, spacious practical layout and immensely clever attention to detail lending it great style. Being of Land Rover ancestry, it goes without saying that it is immensely strong and yet with its air of quiet sophistication, it is also a simple vehicle by today’s standards, making it easy to maintain and run.

This particular car is a 1973 ‘Suffix B’ version, the second iteration in the 25-year-long series of models. ‘Suffix B’ cars were produced between January and October 1973, making it one of the rarest variants. It featured many improvements over the more common ‘Suffix A’ such as rear window wash-wipe, better sound deadening, more instrumentation, a larger twin outlet water bottle and much else besides.

The previous owner replaced the chassis with a galvanised type, replaced many of the inner panels with galvanised steel and brought the car up to a level of great structural integrity and durability. The restoration was then taken on by the current owner, who is more usually associated with restoring Aston Martins. It has been finished to a very high standard with better-than-new Bahama Gold paintwork; all-new Palomino interior; all-new suspension with extensive use of powder coating for longevity; all-new brakes and overhauled electrics. The car has also benefited from some subtle improvements such as a viscous engine fan and auxiliary electric fans. The car has had £9,000 of parts fitted in the past year plus over 700 hours labour.