Story & Photos by Jeremy Bergeron

[Jeremy Bergeron, Colorado Springs, CO grew up in Texas. He’s an architect with The Larson Group in Colorado Springs. While he loves his wife, Jenny, and his two children Ethan and Ashley, missing from his life was a Series Land Rover. Here’s his story as to how he found one –ed]

Our friends thought I must have made a partner in the firm when we drove up in our new Land Rover (pronounced with a snobbish English accent). A year earlier, Jenny and I had just moved to Denver, Colorado as newlyweds from Austin, Texas. Every chance we had, we explored the Colorado landscape. We soon realized that our adventuresome life was hampered by the lack of ground clearance and front wheel drive on our Volkswagen. Shamelessly, I sensed an excuse for an SUV.

We looked at a ton of SUV’s. I was bored by most, moved by none. That is, until I test drove a Land Rover Discovery. I always liked the look of the Discovery from afar, but always assumed that they were expensive and unobtainable at my stage in life. I was wrong on one of those assumptions. We traded in our beloved Volkswagen for a 1996 Land Rover Discovery SE7 from a small used car dealership up in Boulder, CO.

Of course, I was smitten with the Land Rover D90 parked next to our Discovery on the dealer lot, but I just couldn’t convince Jenny or the bank to go for the 3 times the Discovery price the dealer was wanting for it. One can dream, right? The Land Rover drew lots of admiration from friends. I failed to mention to them that I could buy two of these Discovery’s for the price of one of our friend’s cars. Don’t tell anyone, it’s our little secret.

Land Rovers, “As Seen n TV”, were part of my life. I remember laughing hysterically with friends while watching the Series Rover on “The Gods Must Be Crazy,” and sobbing while watching “Born Free.” I loved the stories that involved Land Rovers. I thought of a photo of some old Series Land Rovers sinking into the ground as they sat decaying on an old farm in England. The pictures were beautiful with the imagery of the old Rovers returning to the earth. In my mind, the old Series Land Rovers are kind of like that; they don’t die, they just slowly return to the earth. I wonder what stories those Land Rovers could tell. Did they carry royalty? Did they rescue some lion cubs? Or did they just haul manure?

The stories are what drew me in to the Land Rover world. To me, Land Rovers are purposeful, they look the part, and they are extremely capable taking part in that purpose. I love reading the adventures of folks taking treks around the world in their Discovery or Defenders. I love the community and camaraderie of fellow Land Rover enthusiasts, both in person and the online communities found in various Land Rover forums.

Eventually, the Discovery was just not enough to feed my Land Rover addiction. I started to get that funny feeling deep inside that I needed to go to the source of that addiction and decided I wanted… scratch that, I needed to find a Land Rover Series. Thus began my search for a Series.

In the spring of 2007, I had a tax refund burning a hole in my pocket. Jenny supported my search but she corralled her enthusiasm. I looked locally in Colorado. I searched CraigsList nationally. I searched the Land Rover forum “for sale” sections. I watched the bids on eBay. I found nothing. I was looking for a Series that was in daily driver condition, and soon realized that my “large tax refund” was not as large as I had originally thought.

I started to see more and more about importing a Series from England. Wow! The prices I was being quoted for a Series including shipping to the United States was ridiculously lower than anything I had seen stateside. I was game! I found a nice looking 1975 Land Rover Series III 109 Station Wagon with the 2.25L diesel. Can anybody say Biodiesel? Maybe even run it on vegetable oil? Yes! I could start making my own fuel with old frying oil from the local Chinese food take-out restaurant. I would become the envy of all environmentalists as I putted around town hauling my recycling to the recycle center with only the smell of french fries in my wake. I was excited!

I convinced my dad that we could fly to Jacksonville, FL, pick this truck up at the dock and drive it all the way home to Colorado Springs fresh off the boat. It would be a great father and son bonding time as we traversed half the country in a 30+ year old truck that has never seen American soil.

Who was I kidding? I looked into having the truck transported from Jacksonville to Colorado Springs, which actually would be cheaper than flying and driving back, but where is the adventure in that? Where was the story? I wanted to be able to tell the story of the time my dad and I drove an old Land Rover Series across the country. Ultimately, too many details and too many unknowns took the fun out of this scheme.

Thinking more about the quest for a Series vehicle, I realized that I was looking for a daily driver, when in fact, I needed to find a Series project. The story and adventure I was looking for could be found in the project itself. I never knew my grandfather, but he and my father restored old Model T’s and Model A’s back in the 1950’s and 60’s. One first project was the restoration of a rust bucket Model A into a functional car. Like so many others, my dad traded the product of his story in on a 1962 Ford Falcon. It has now become a story ending with regret.

So I wondered about a “project” 1965 Series IIA 88” advertised in Colorado Springs. The seller said “all the pieces are there”. I went out to his 5 acre horse property and, sure enough, there in the open barn were lots of pieces. I don’t doubt that all the pieces were there, but there were actually 3 or 4 Series trucks scattered around the barn. This would have been way too much project for a first time Series owner.

I eventually found my way to the Rovers North forums, where I did a search through the “for sale” section with a simple “Colorado” keyword search. There, I found a very simple ad for a 1967 Land Rover Series IIA 109”, with a 6-cylinder, located 2.5 hours away in Alamosa, CO. The listing was a few months old by then, with no pictures and an asking price was $5,000. I contacted the seller by email and Dan (name changed to protect the innocent) responded telling me the truck was still available and that he was now in O.B.O. mode.

He sent me some photos of the truck but it was hard to tell much from them. Dan really wanted me to come take a look at the truck in person. I got the sense that he wasn’t finding many potential buyers willing to visit a “project” in a relatively remote area of Colorado. I took the information that was given to me and posted it on a few different Land Rover forums to get some feedback and a recommendation for the “OBO” amount. Based on the photos posted, forum posters suggested $1,500. I called Dan and told him I could offer no more than $1,500. He agreed we should meet. Sweet! Time for a road trip.

I have this idyllic idea of my dad and me bonding while turning wrenches on an old Land Rover project. However, my dad said he was done working on cars in his lifetime. He has moved on to fly fishing. I hate fishing- never mind that I haven’t tried it! I called my dad up to see if he would like to take a road trip the following Saturday down to Alamosa. I did not tell him the purpose of the trip but he guessed easily.

After a sleepless Friday night, my dad and I left on a gorgeous fall morning, perfect weather for a drive. We had some good shoulder to shoulder bonding time conversing about cars and life on our drive down. I assured my dad that I was only going to look at the truck since I brought no money with us.

We met Dan at the truck, parked for 4 years in some tall grass alongside a metal building off the highway near Alamosa. Dan had removed all the extra Land Rover parts and pieces that were stored inside the truck and spread them across the ground around the truck. My first reaction was all smiles; the truck was beautiful to me. I crawled around every inch and was amazed at the lack of rust and the general completeness of everything. However, there were a few pair of underwear that appear to have been used as oil rags lying around the truck; one hopes it was oil. I noticed there were a few items on this Series IIA such as the heated windscreens and extra black panels around the bulkhead that led me to think that maybe this was some kind up special model.

Even my dad got caught up in the moment. After looking over the truck we prepared to say our goodbyes to Dan. My dad surprised me and offered $1,000 on my behalf which was countered to $1,250. Deal! One problem, we did not bring any money. We offered a deposit, but Dan would not accept and said a handshake was all he needed. I just bought a 1967 Land Rover Series IIA 109” for $1,250 on a handshake. We would come back down the next Saturday to haul the Series back to Colorado Springs.

The week between, I did some research to figure out why this Series truck seemed to have a few “extras” compared to others I had seen. I found out that this Series was #329 of only 811 NADA (North American Dollar Area) trucks ever produced. The NADA trucks have a slightly modified 6 cylinder Rover engine, and they were the last 109” trucks ever produced and sold in the U.S. This Series left the Solihull factory in September 1966 heading to San Francisco. This all sounded pretty cool to me.

Saturday could not come soon enough! My dad and I once again headed down to Alamosa in the Discovery, this time to bring the Series home. We rented a U-Haul trailer in Alamosa and met Dan and a buddy of his at the truck. The Rover had no brakes; we put the transfer case in neutral and pushed it onto the trailer.

After completing the deal, Dan tells me that a couple showed up at his house the night before offering $3,000 for the truck and had a flatbed trailer ready for the haul. He told them that he already had a deal. Dan honored his handshake even though somebody offered him more than double my purchase price. He did not even try to get more money from me. He even saw to it that a spare 6 cylinder engine that came with the truck found its way to my house.

The drive home with the Discovery pulling the Series was slow and uneventful. My dad and I took many opportunities to make stops and snap a few pictures along the way. We stopped at an old antique store in Fort Garland before heading up La Veta Pass (9,413 ft). The owner of the store, a man in his 80’s, practically came running out to check out the old Series Rover. We slowly climbed up La Veta Pass. The Discovery did a decent job pulling on the highways, but once we were in stop and go traffic with lights in Colorado Springs, the Discovery felt tired. Hills started to feel more like mountains. We had one last stop to make before getting home, the car wash. I thought it might be wise to get rid of the years of dirt from the San Luis Valley off the truck.

We finally arrived home! The Series has taken over the oil stained side of the garage from the Discovery. The poor Discovery is now sitting out in the cold and snow. The Series looks kind of happy to be indoors for a change.

Taking inventory of the truck, I have found only one dead mouse; no signs of Hantavirus yet! In the truck, I found a Xerox copy of the front and back of an old February 1967 Four Wheeler Magazine with an ad for the NADA 6 cylinder truck. Later, on Ebay, I found an actual copy of that issue. So now I have a road test of the “new” 109” to read.

I have been told that I need to come up with a name first, so I am still working on that. Apparently everything was working and running when the truck was parked, which gives me great hope for its future. Just need some time to tinker. Friends have come over to see the new veddy-British Land Rover and most seem pretty excited. The guys seem to understand the desire and excitement, but most of the girls just roll their eyes. I love my wife!

This is just the beginning of my episode of this Land Rover’s story. It has a story spanning more than 40 years already. I would love to have my dad come along side me in this project. Maybe after he is done fishing! My kids, Ethan (4) and Ashley (2), may one day like to do more with the Series IIA than just jump from row to row. My hope is that my family will be able to bond with this Rover adventure. I am intending not to spend too much time tinkering, and make sure my family comes first. Like most good stories, they get better with age. I feel like I am part of the new generation of Land Rover Series owners, the next guard, if you will, that will continue to enjoy and safeguard the Land Rover heritage and continue the story.

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