Industry | Automotive |
---|---|
Founded | 1981 |
Defunct | 1987 |
Fate | Acquired by British Aerospace |
Successor |
|
Headquarters | , |
Products |
Land Rover Group (LRG) was a division of British Leyland (BL) and later the Rover Group that was in existence between 1981 and 1987. LRG brought British Leyland's light commercial vehicle production under one management, consisting of the Land Rover utility 4x4 range, the Range Rover luxury 4x4 and the former Leyland Sherpa van range (re-branded Freight Rover to match the other group members in 1984). LRG operated two factories in the Birmingham area –the Solihull plant and the Freight Rover plant at Washwood Heath.
The group was formed to produce a more logical management structure within the BL group – prior to the creation of LRG the Land Rover business was part of the Jaguar Rover Triumph or specialist division, makers of luxury cars, whilst the Sherpa van was part of the Leyland Truck & Bus division and the only light commercial product in a range otherwise made up of full-size commercial vehicles. Land Rover had already been detached from the Specialist Division in 1978, when a new BL subsidiary called "Land Rover Ltd" was created, that consisted of the Solihull assembly plant, and its satellites – along with the production and development of both the Series Land Rover and Range Rover. The second phase of these reforms would be to move Rover passenger car production out of Solihull – in 1981 production of the Rover SD1 was moved to Cowley, where all future large Rover cars would be produced until the break-up of the Rover Group (as BL was by then called), by BMW in 2000.
The Land Rover part of the group saw the most product development in an (ultimately successful) attempt to turn around a severe decline in Land Rover sales in the early 1980s (a 25% fall between 1980 and 1981 alone). A modernised and improved Land Rover model range was launched in stages between 1983 and 1985 (the Land Rover Ninety/One Ten/127 range, with new engines, transmissions, suspension and interiors. The Range Rover was gradually pushed up-market into the luxury car sector with a facelift and with more powerful engines, an automatic gearbox, 5 doors and new interior features such as leather seats and air conditioning. Throughout the mid-1980s new engines were added to the Land Rover line-up, including more powerful V8 petrol engines and a turbodiesel model.
The Sherpa van was given an immediate facelift in 1981, creating the 'K2' series, which was only available for a few years before the Freight Rover business was expanded to a two-model range. The original narrow-body Sherpa became the Freight Rover 200-series, whilst a new wider-bodied model with a heavier payload was introduced in 1984 called the Freight Rover 300-series. The 300-series came in a range of wheelbases and body styles. The 300-series also brought with it a new look for the Freight Rover products with square headlights and a new grille which was also applied to the 200 Series (although the smaller model retained its round lights). The new model used adapted versions of the new 2.5-litre diesel engine from Land Rover, but the 200-series retained the venerable 1.8-litre B-Series diesel, although from 1985 the V8 petrol engine and gearbox combination from the Land Rover range was available as a high-power option. A logical new addition to the Freight Rover range was a 4x4 version of the 200-series van using Land Rover axles and transmission units. This model was only available as a special order to fleet and military buyers- whilst popular with utility companies and contractors it was never offered for general sale because it risked taking sales from the Land Rover One Ten and 127.
In 1986 British Leyland was renamed the Rover Group in preparation for privatisation. This saw LRG, Leyland Trucks and Leyland Bus reunited into the Land Rover Leyland Group, but with each division remaining operationally separate.
This was a short-lived arrangement. In 1986 Leyland Bus became a private company, the subject of a management buyout, later being acquired by Volvo. In 1987 the Leyland Trucks division (including the Freight Rover van making interests) merged with the Dutch DAF Trucks company to form DAF NV (which in the UK traded as Leyland DAF). DAF NV was later floated on the Dutch stock exchange. Land Rover was retained by the Rover Group and the latter was sold to British Aerospace in 1988.
Land Rover
Range Rover
Freight Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil, China, India, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. The Land Rover name was created in 1948 by the Rover Company for a utilitarian 4WD off-road vehicle. Currently, the Land Rover range consists solely of upmarket and luxury sport utility vehicles.
DAF Trucks is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of Paccar. DAF originally stood for van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabs and axle assemblies are produced at its Westerlo plant in Belgium. Some of the truck models sold with the DAF brand are designed and built by Leyland Trucks at its Leyland plant in the United Kingdom.
The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company originally founded in 1878, beginning car manufacturing in 1904. It primarily operated from its base in Solihull, Warwickshire. Rover also manufactured the Land Rover series from 1948 onwards, and created the Range Rover in 1970, which went on to become its most successful and profitable product. Land Rover eventually became a separate company and brand in its own right.
British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40% share of the UK car market, with its history going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover, and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, BLMC had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation.
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986, which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business, Land Rover Group, Freight Rover vans and Leyland Trucks. The Rover Group also owned the dormant trademarks from the many companies that had merged into British Leyland and its predecessors such as Triumph, Morris, Wolseley, Riley and Alvis.
Leyland Motors Limited was an English vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1967, respectively. It gave its name to the British Leyland Motor Corporation, formed when it merged with British Motor Holdings in 1968, to become British Leyland after being nationalised. British Leyland later changed its name to simply BL, then in 1986 to Rover Group.
The Austin Rover Group was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd which encompassed the Austin-Morris and Jaguar-Rover-Triumph divisions of British Leyland. After a major restructuring of BL's car manufacturing operations, Jaguar regained its independence whilst the Triumph and Morris marques were retired. The new, leaner car business was rechristened as the Austin Rover Group and focused primarily on the Austin and Rover marques. The Morris and Triumph marques continued briefly within ARG until 1984 when both were dropped.
The Rover V8 engine is a compact OHV V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder block and cylinder heads, designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom, based on a General Motors engine. It has been used in a wide range of vehicles from Rover and other manufacturers since its British debut in 1967.
The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division, and finally the Austin Rover division of British Leyland from 1976 until 1986, when it was replaced by the Rover 800. The SD1 was marketed under various names. In 1977 it won the European Car of the Year title.
LDV Group Limited, formerly Leyland DAF Vans, was a British van manufacturer based in Washwood Heath, Birmingham. Historically part of Rover Group and Leyland DAF, it was later a wholly owned subsidiary of GAZ. Owing to the global recession and a lack of long-term investment, production was suspended at the LDV factory in December 2008.
Leyland Trucks is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer based in Leyland, Lancashire, United Kingdom. It can trace its origins back to the original Leyland Motors, which was founded in 1896, and subsequently evolved into British Leyland. After British Leyland became the Rover Group in 1986, the truck business was spun off and merged with DAF Trucks to form DAF NV, which operated as Leyland DAF in the UK.
Leyland DAF was a commercial vehicle manufacturing company based in Leyland, United Kingdom, and a subsidiary of DAF NV. In February 1993, Leyland DAF was placed into receivership.
Freight Rover was a British commercial vehicle manufacturer based in the Washwood Heath area of Birmingham, England.
The LDV Pilot was the last of a series of a panel vans that was produced by from 1974 until 2005, originally as the 1974 Leyland Sherpa developed by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland, which was in turn derived from earlier light commercials produced by the British Motor Corporation.
The Range Rover is a 4x4, mid-size off-road vehicle series produced from 1970 to 1996 – initially by the Rover division of British Leyland, and latterly by the Rover Group.
The BL O-series engine is an automobile straight-four engine family that was produced by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland (BL) as a development of the BMC B-series engine family.
The LDV Convoy is a light commercial van that was manufactured from 1983 until 2006. The Convoy and its predecessors were wider and longer versions of the Freight Rover Sherpa, based on the Leyland Sherpa series of vans from 1974 and later known as the LDV Pilot. Originally sold as the Freight Rover Sherpa 285/310/350, it became the Leyland DAF 400 Series in 1989, the LDV 400 series in 1993, and then finally settled on the Convoy name in 1996.
1986 in motoring includes developments in the automotive industry throughout 1986 by various automobile manufacturers, grouped by country. The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles.
Solihull plant is a car manufacturing factory in Lode Lane, Lode Heath, Solihull, UK, owned by Jaguar Land Rover. The plant sits on a 300-acre (120 ha) site and employs over 9,000 people in manufacturing.
Rover is a British automotive brand that was used for over a century, from 1904 to 2005. It was launched as a bicycle maker called Rover Company in 1878, before starting to manufacture autocars in 1904. The brand used the Viking longship as its logo. The rights to the brand are currently part of Jaguar Land Rover, which continues to produce Land Rovers, but no Rover automobiles are currently in production and the brand is considered dormant.