One aspect of the original Range Rover that made it so special is its extremely long production run without being fundamentally redesigned.

From 1970 until 1996, what became known as the Range Rover Classic had the same general design, the same incredible capabilities both on-road and off-road, and the same Rover V8 engine powering it all. Or did it?

For the first decade from 1970 up until the early 1980s, the Range Rover barely changed at all; it sold well, there were already waiting lists to buy one, it had become remarkably popular with celebrities and the aristocracy and British Leyland management were focused on the Rover SD1.

There were only three doors and a relatively utilitarian, even spartan interior.

This would begin to change by 1981; inspired by the huge popularity of conversion kits provided by the likes of Monteverdi, the newly restructured Land Rover began selling their own four-door Range Rover.

This was the first major change, but far from the last. The 3.5-litre Rover V8 was replaced with a 3.9-litre version with fuel injection that significantly improved performance and reliability at a time when the Range Rover’s marketing became more laser-focused on the fledgling SUV market.

In 1984, automatic transmission and leather trim were available for the first time, and soon after this, the instrument pod was updated, and the front end would see a significant change to make it safer for pedestrians.

The result of this was a car that, whilst always recognisably a Range Rover, did fundamentally evolve over the decades, becoming a much more comfortable car on the road as British Leyland and later the Rover Group realised that the vast majority of drivers would spend most of their time driving them on the road.

The Range Rover was always a fantastic car, but it became better and better up until the point that it was discontinued entirely as Land Rover faced an unusual future.